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Author Archives: SCblogger
Library Closings!
The Davenport Public Library (and therefore our Special Collections Center) will be closed the 24th and the 25th—that’s this Wednesday and Thursday. We will also be closed for New Year’s Eve and New Years Day next week. That’s next Wednesday … Continue reading
Posted in Local History
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A Capital Theater!
Children arising early with noisy glee. Presents opened to joyful laughter. Special breakfasts, brunches, and of course the traditional dinner. Christmas 1920. Along with all the happiness of the day was the excitement of the thought of going … Continue reading
Listen Up!
During the holiday season we often have an opportunity to spend time with relatives we don’t see often, and perhaps make special efforts to visit the elders of our clans whether that means going over the river and through the … Continue reading
The Art of (Alice) French Cooking
We are about half way through the season of Holiday Feasting, where Thanksgiving dinners (and the leftovers) have mercifully worn off and many of us begin to look forward to the next traditional fancy dinner with joy or with dread—depending, … Continue reading
Posted in Local History
Tagged Alice French, Christmas dinner, Davenport, Iowa, Teddy Roosevelt
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Now Available: Iowa Civil War Enlistment Papers
If you’ve got an ancestor who served in an Iowa Regiment during the Civil War we’ve just acquired a great resource to assist you in your research. Thanks to some generous folks like the Tawani Foundation in Chicago who provided … Continue reading
Happy Anniversary to Us!
Primary Selections from Special Collections is a year old today! That’s 52 Images o’ the Week prepped and captioned, decades of newspaper microfilm threaded onto machines, many boxes of old records dusted off and brought into the light, plenty of judicious … Continue reading
Connections & Canals – Hansens & the Hennepin
What did you do on Thanksgiving? Attend family feasts? Watch football? Nap? Well, in 1894 on Thanksgiving Day, about 50 business men involved with the Davenport Business Man’s Association boarded a special passenger train at the C.R.I. & P. depot … Continue reading
A Grand Opening
A noon day parade. Flowers sent from the garden of movie star Ginger Rogers. Big executives in town. Search lights across the sky . An American Legion band furnishing a musical background. What was happening?? Why, everyone was getting ready … Continue reading
Turkey Notes
Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s Turkey Note time! What on earth, you may ask, are Turkey Notes? Turkey Notes are a Davenport Thanksgiving tradition full of mystery and glamour and fairly bad poetry. They are said to have been around for … Continue reading
Posted in Local History
Tagged Davenport, Holidays, Iowa, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Traditions, Turkey Notes
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Davenport’s Great White Way – The Lighting of Brady Street
Brady Street circa 1914 There has been some press in the last year regarding a need for revitalization of Davenport’s Brady Street. Perhaps a look back in time might encourage those who are attempting to create positive change for the … Continue reading
