Author Archives: SCblogger

A Collage of Colleges (and a High School, too)

If land is affected by what is built on it—in other words, if a church makes ground holy and a mine makes it holey—then the parcel bordered by Main and Harrison Streets and 11th and 12th Avenues is one of … Continue reading

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Archive Adventures: The Davenport City Hospital

Genealogists are always hoping for new discoveries in records and the Davenport City Archives has produced for us again! Davenport actively maintained a “City Hospital” for a brief period of time in 1858 and 1859 and the City Physician. Dr. … Continue reading

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Dancing in the Yuletide Glow

Beneath the glittering chandeliers women in formal evening gowns danced with their escorts to the music of a live band. Outside the cold December evening passed, but inside hundreds of people warmed by dancing, drinking, and laughter probably did not … Continue reading

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A Brief Musical Interlude

Our staff here at the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center celebrate the winter holidays each year by exchanging cards, small gifts, mailing cards to our wonderful volunteers, and, in one unfortunate case, writing new lyrics to an old holiday song. Here … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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