The images below documenting Davenport’s 1947 and 1950 Christmas parades come from the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center’s “Davenport Chamber of Commerce Photograph Collection” (1986-01). This group of approximately 1,000 images ranging in date from about 1900-1950 was donated to the library in the mid-1980s, when the Special Collections department was just coming into being. It formed the nucleus of the general photograph collection, which grew until a little over ten years ago, when archival practices changed.
Each of these images is identified with a “VM89 number;” the VM for “Visual Materials” (including prints, negatives, and slides) and 89 for the year, 1989, in which the organizational scheme was conceived. A great many of the “VM89s” have been digitized, and a great many already cataloged and posted to the Upper Mississippi Valley Digital Image Archive (UMVDIA). Those below have not yet been made similarly available, though some depicting the same Christmas parades have.
We are certain that this particular group of images comes from the original Chamber of Commerce Collection, as each is stamped with that name on the back. In fact, they were all taken by the same commercial photographer, R. K. Sunderbruch, who happened to have served on the Chamber’s board. And it was the Chamber that sponsored the annual Christmas Parade!
1947 Christmas Parade
Santa Claus float at 2nd and Main Streets, VM89-000327
Mother Goose float, VM89-000328
Humpty-Dumpty float, VM89-000332
1950 Christmas Parade
Richard Kiel “Dick” Sunderbruch (1916-1992) began his career as photographer for the Tri-City Star and by a young age he had opened his own professional photography business. During World War II, he was a photography instructor for the Signal Corps and a photo unit commander in Europe. He continued as a commercial photographer in Davenport until 1970, when he took a position in Washington state. (Quad-City Times and Rock Island Argus obituaries, October 30, 1992).
(posted by Katie)
