Category Archives: Local History

May Day, MayDay: Saving Our Archives

May 1st to some symbolizes the start of bright, sunny weather and flowers peeking their heads from their leaves. To others, it reminds them of the tradition of children surprising friends with special baskets with flowers, popcorn, and treats. The … Continue reading

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“Find Your Place” in US Census Data!

Happy National Library Week! This year’s theme is “Find Your Place at the Library,” and we are taking the opportunity to highlight some of the resources available at the RSSC Center that can help you do just that! The special … Continue reading

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Spring Cleaning and DIY Ideas: April 1920 style

With many of us cleaning out closets and doing a few Do It Yourself projects around the house; we thought we would share some advertising suggestions from April 1920. We hope you enjoy the look back. Before any Spring cleaning … Continue reading

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In Memoriam: Fran Riley

It was in 1978 that a new reporter moved to the Quad Cities to take a job with popular local radio station KSTT. When he made this move, Fran Riley most likely never imagined he would spend the next 41 … Continue reading

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Crowdsourcing Transcription and Indexing Projects to Work on While Sheltering in Place

If you need a break from Netflix, reading, crafting, disinfecting, and sterilizing during the COVID-19 quarantine, there are many volunteer indexing and transcription opportunities available online. Indexing and transcribing can be a rewarding pastime for genealogists and local historians. If … Continue reading

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Poesy, Rhyme, and Verse: Celebrating World Poetry Day with Iowa Poetry

We want to share our love of poetry by showcasing some books of poetry from our collection that you can view at home either through HathiTrust Digital Library, “a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries preserving 17+ million digitized … Continue reading

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Counting Scott County Women in 19th-century US Census Records

Family historians of the future urge you to fill out your 2020 Census questionnaire! The US Census is one of genealogists’ most useful tools for determining family relationships, movements, economic status, and other characteristics over time. As we are also … Continue reading

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In Memoriam: Dick Stahl

Most Quad Citizens have heard the name Dick Stahl in many different contexts as an educator, a poet, or an avid supporter of the Quad Cities. Dick Stahl will have a special place in Richard “Dick” Hugo Stahl was born … Continue reading

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Davenport NAACP Branch Officers, 1936

The Davenport chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held an election of officers on January 3, 1936. Mr. N. Taggart of 1026 Bridge Avenue was elected president, Mr. J. Roberts of 1122 Ripley Street was … Continue reading

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Scott County Valentines

As we continue to catalog negatives in the Free-Hostetler collection, we were tickled to discover that the young man in this image was born on February 14, 1897 and given the first name of “Valentine!” Valentine was born in Lincoln … Continue reading

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