Q: What was Hillenbrand's Folly?

A: The Association’s 23-story headquarters building on Chicago’s near north side once was dismissed by some as “Hillenbrand’s Folly,” an unsubtle swipe at past ADA Executive Director Harold Hillenbrand.

In the early 1960s, the Board of Trustees gave Dr. Hillenbrand the task of finding property for a new central office building. Through a friend, the executive director learned that the Chicago Red Cross was looking to sell property it owned at 211 E. Chicago Ave., a lot occupied by a one-story garage. The parcel, just off Michigan Avenue, was little more than a stone’s throw from the landmark Chicago Water Tower, a castle-like structure that had survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Dr. Hillenbrand negotiated a purchase price of $740,000, and the ADA bought the property in the summer of 1962. Work on the new building began in November of that year and was completed just before Thanksgiving Day, 1965.

As for “Hillenbrand’s Folly,” it seems hard to fathom these days, but in the early 1960s, the area around the new ADA building had been deteriorating for decades. Dr. Hillenbrand came under fire from some who thought the ADA should have purchased property closer to the Loop, the city’s central business district.

Dr. Hillenbrand held his ground, assuring critics that the property had been a wise investment, that the neighborhood would bounce back.
And did it ever

.In the decades to follow, an influx of upscale shops and restaurants and high-end housing spurred a renaissance along North Michigan Avenue, an area now known as Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

Dr. Hillenbrand, executive director from 1946-70, died in 1986 at the age of 79—time enough to see his folly become a grand achievement.

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Q: Who is Dudley the Dinosaur?

A: Dudley the Dinosaur, the cartoon character who helps the ADA teach kids about the importance oral health care, actually started life as a dragon.

Born in 1971 in what is now the ADA’s Salable Materials Department, Dudley first appeared in a comic book about a dragon feared by those around him because of his dingy teeth.  A boy teaches the dragon about the benefits of daily oral care, and soon everyone is Dudley’s friend.

The comic book, a big hit at the time, later was made into an animated short film, and both were available through the ADA Catalog until 1985.

Then in 1990, Dudley was reintroduced. In this new version, however, he had morphed into a dinosaur, reflecting a growing preference for real, not imaginary, prehistoric creatures.

The new Dudley appeared in several animated films starting with “Dudley Visits the Dentist,” released in December 1990. Along the way, he also acquired a sister, Dee-Dee, a baby brother, Digby, and several friends.

Over the years, Dudley has been featured in a wide range of ADA promotional and marketing materials—videos, posters, patient education brochures, classroom materials and much more. He also makes regular appearances at Annual Session and other events.

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Q: Who is Wheedon E Osborne?

A: Dr. Weedon E. Osborne, a Chicago native and 1915 graduate of Northwestern University’s dental school, earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his extraordinary heroism in World War I.

The medal was awarded posthumously to Dr. Osborne, who holds the tragic distinction of having been the first ever Dental Corps officer killed in combat.
After earning his dental degree, the young dentist was commissioned as a lieutenant, junior grade, in the U.S. Navy Dental Corps and shipped out to France in 1918.  He arrived to find that his equipment had been delayed, so he volunteered as a stretcher-bearer and spent the weeks ahead rescuing wounded comrades.

On June 6, 1918, Lt. Osborne was part of a patrol that came under heavy fire while advancing on Bouresche, France, in what would be known as the Battle of Belleau Wood. When the patrol’s commanding officer was hit, Lt. Osborne came to his aid and was carrying him to safety when an artillery shell exploded, killing both men. Lt. Osborne was 25 years old.

In addition to the Congressional Medal of Honor, Dr. Osborne also was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, presented by Gen. John J. Pershing, commander of U.S. forces in Europe.

Dr. Osborne is buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau Aisne, France. His Medal of Honor is displayed in the U.S. Navy Museum in Washington, D.C.

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Q: Who was the first woman dentist in the United States?

The story of Dr. Lucy Hobbs Taylor, the nation’s first woman dentist, is one of persistence, determination, courage and achievement.

Born in Constable, N.Y., in 1833, Lucy grew up in an era when options for women were severely limited. Despite an abiding interest in health care, Lucy started out teaching school in Michigan. In 1859, she moved to Cincinnati, where her application to the inaptly named Eclectic College of Medicine was rejected because of her sex.

Not one to be denied, Lucy studied privately with one of the school’s professors, who steered her toward dentistry. She applied for admission to the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, which rejected her application—again because of her sex—though she convinced the college dean to tutor her privately.

Finally, in 1861, the 28-year-old Lucy opened a dental practice in Cincinnati, later moving her practice to Iowa where, a few years later, the Iowa State Dental Society accepted her as a member.

Iowa’s recognition of Lucy’s accomplishments helped open the doors of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, which accepted her as a member of its senior class in November 1865.  Receiving credit for her years as a practitioner, Lucy earned her doctorate in dentistry in February 1866. About a year later, she married James M. Taylor, a Civil War veteran who became a dentist under his wife’s guidance.

The couple moved to Lawrence, Kan., where they managed a large and successful practice. “Dr. Lucy,” as she was known far and wide, died in Lawrence on Oct. 3, 1910. She was 77 years old.

By the end of the 19th century, nearly 1,000 women had been welcomed into the dental profession, thanks in large measure to the trailblazing efforts of the indomitable Lucy Hobbs Taylor.

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Q: When was the Journal of the American Dental Association Founded?

A: The Journal of the American Dental Association, widely known as JADA, was introduced in November 1913 as the Official Bulletin of the National Dental Association.

JADA became JADA in 1922, and today is the dental profession’s best-read professional journal—peer reviewed and published monthly under the direction of its editor, Dr. Michael Glick.

An independent readership study conducted annually by PERQ/HCI found that JADA and the ADA News this year are locked in a tie for dentistry’s best-read publications. PERQ/HCI, in its FOCUS study, uses a formula to calculate average per-issue readership of dental publications. The 2009 study showed JADA and the ADA News in a dead heat, with identical readership scores of 66 percent, placing both publications a full 10 percentage points ahead of their nearest competition.

In 1988, the monthly ADA Journal first became available online. Ten years later, in 2008, readers downloaded 3.7 million JADA articles, nearly a million more downloads than the previous year.

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Q: How many times has Annual Session been held in Hawaii?

A: When the ADA gathers in Honolulu this fall, it will be the third time the Association has held its annual session in Hawaii. The first Hawaii session took place in 1989, and the ADA has met there once every decade since.

Holding the record for hosting the most annual sessions is the very place where the ADA was founded in 1859: Niagara Falls, N.Y. The Association has met there 13 times, though the last session held at the falls was way back in 1902.

Other frequently visited venues include San Francisco (11 annual sessions) and Chicago (nine sessions).

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Q: Who did the ADA refuse to relinquish the Waldorf-Astoria's Grand Ballroom for during their centennial?

A: In September 1959, the ADA was preparing to mark its first 100 years with a centennial celebration at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. With the long-planned event just days away, then-ADA President Percy T. Philips received two letters—one from New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., the other from U.S. State Department Chief of Protocol Wiley T. Buchanan Jr.

Both men urged the ADA to relinquish the Waldorf’s Grand Ballroom on the date of its centennial gala, Sept. 17, so that the city could host a luncheon for a visiting dignitary: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

After mulling these requests, Dr. Philips and the ADA said “Nyet!” to both. The Association noted that it had a rock-solid agreement to use the Waldorf’s Grand Ballroom on the day in question, and that moving the House of Delegates’ centennial meeting to another site on short notice was not feasible.

The Association’s strong stance made big news. Then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon, scheduled to speak at the ADA meeting, took the ADA’s side. He speculated that the Russians might get to the moon first (they didn’t, of course), “but the dentists got the ballroom first.”

Public opinion, for the most part, favored the Association for exercising its rights in a free society. As for the Soviet premier, a luncheon was held in his honor at the Commodore Hotel, nine blocks from the Waldorf.

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Q: Who was the ADA's first president? Who is the ADA's current president?

A: The ADA’s first president was Dr. William Henry Atkinson (1815-1891), who held the post from 1860-62, shortly after the Association was founded. Dr. Atkinson established a dental practice in Cleveland, and later opened a second practice in New York. The ADA’s current president, Dr. John S. Findley, is a general dentist from Cross Roads, Texas, and the 145th person to hold that high office.

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Q: Which Annual Session went on despite a national crisis?

A: On Oct. 23, 1962, the ADA was preparing for its annual session in Miami Beach when President Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered the Strategic Air Command to go to DEFCON 2. The nation appeared on the brink of war with the Soviet Union over the placement of Soviet missile bases in Cuba and a subsequent U.S. naval blockade of the island.

The ADA meeting was set to begin Oct. 29, but there were doubts about the world continuing, let alone the annual session. Miami and its environs had taken on the appearance of an armed camp, as troops and tanks flooded the area. Then, on the very day session was to begin, President Kennedy announced that the Soviets had agreed to dismantle the missile bases. The terrible crisis had passed. That year, about 12,000 people attended the ADA meeting, far fewer than expected. But those who attended brought along a sense relief that was shared by all around the world.

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Q: Who was the first African-American to recieve a dental degree? In 1869, Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman earned his dental degree from the Harvard University School of Dental Medicine. He was one of just 16 students admitted to Harvard’s first dental school class. What’s more, he was the first African-American to receive a dental degree in the United States. The son of former slaves, Dr. Freeman was born in Washington, D.C., in 1846. As a young man, he worked in the D.C. dental office of Dr. Henry Bliss Noble, who helped him gain admittance to Harvard. Tragically, Dr. Freeman died just four years after receiving his dental degree. He was 27 years old. Other notable firsts: Dr. Ida Grey Nelson was the first African-American woman to receive a dental degree (University of Michigan Dental School, 1890); Dr. Rufus Beshears, a 1906 graduate of the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, is believed to be the first African-American member of the ADA. Return to Top