Lamar Dodd, a well-known Georgia artist who grew up in the LaGrange area, loved to use minerals and fossils he collected as inspiration for his paintings, and the items in the collection clearly reveal his discerning eye. Beginning around age 11 or 12, Dodd began taking art classes at LaGrange College, which was a school for women at the time. He continued taking classes for five years, even being listed in the yearbook as a member of the Art Club, until he graduated from LaGrange High School. Because he had taken all of the art classes required for a degree, he also received a certificate in Art from LaGrange College. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from LC in 1949. The Library has acquired around thirty of Dodd's geodes, agates and fossils, many of which are on display on the main floor.
Richard Mallory, a long-time resident of LaGrange and prominent civic leader, donated his mineral and fossil collection to LaGrange College in the late 1970s and early 1980s in memory of his mother, Georgia Mallory, class of 1911. Although he intended that it be used for educational purposes, the beauty and exuberance of color and shape cannot be discounted as an important ingredient in the overall appreciation of these items. Five large trunk pieces of petrified trees are located next to Candler Cottage, and several pieces from his collection can be seen on the main floor of the Library; the pièces de résistance are the two immense amethyst geodes mined from Brazil.
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