Author Archives: SCblogger

The Colorful Wedding Announcement of Miss Helen Watts

Included in our Hostetler Photograph Collections is a set of glass negatives  showing the former Miss Helen Kelsey Watts in her wedding gown, in which she married Mr. Homer Brown Payne. While researching these images, we located a wedding announcement, … Continue reading

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Throwback Thursday: The Quad-Cities USA Campaign

While adding items to our Ephemera collection, we found brochures for the Quad Cities U.S.A. campaign—and we couldn’t resist sharing! ________________ “A typical Quad-Cities resident lives in one community, works in another and shops in a third city. It’s urban, … Continue reading

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A Flood of Images: April 2013

Another flood has come and gone (or at least it is on its way to being gone!). While this one did not crack the Top 10 flood list, it unofficially crested at 19.12 feet on April 21, 2013 at Lock … Continue reading

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Library Leadership: Directors We Have Known

In honor of National Library Week, we thought we’d take a look at those who have led the Davenport Public Library over the past 111 years. Even with this brief amount of information, it’s interesting to note how the education, … Continue reading

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A Davenport First: Green River Soda

 As we wait (im)patiently in our department for winter to bloom into spring, we linger a little longer over the warm weather pictures and the senior yearbooks we pull for patrons. And sometimes our lingering leads to a blog topic—especially … Continue reading

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A Pencil-Drawn Snapshot in Time: City Engineering Department Survey Books

Many of our blog posts in the past year have involved the Civil War period, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the event. One Civil War era primary resource in the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections archives is the City of Davenport … Continue reading

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Marshal-ing our Resources

Recently, we explained how we uncovered that the man we—and everyone else—had thought was the first City Marshal of Davenport . . . wasn’t. But this had us researching what the City Marshal—a position that no longer exists—originally did, and when he stopped … Continue reading

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Library Closed this Friday

The Davenport Public Library—and therefore our Special Collections Center—will be CLOSED  on Friday, March 29, 2013. We WILL be open our regular hours Saturday, March 30!

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Genealogy Night is Coming!

Have you been looking for your Great-great grandfather’s gravesite for so long, you suspect he’s still alive somewhere, snickering at your efforts to find him? We in the Special Collections Center of the Davenport Public Library understand. And we are … Continue reading

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Davenporters of Note: Lottie Boies Clapp

Women’s History Month provides reminders of the importance of the contributions of women to our present society, culture, and communities.  Many women did this by filling traditional roles, but others took on non-traditional, necessary tasks—and some of them were the … Continue reading

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