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Category Archives: Local History
“Quietly Utilizing Our Total Ability”: The Davenport Quota Club
Quota Club International Incorporated was chartered on February 6, 1919 in Buffalo, New York. It was the first international women’s club and was made up of professional women. Quota is a Latin word that means “A share of one part … Continue reading
Posted in Local History
Tagged Civic Clubs, Conventions, Davenport (Iowa), Hotel Blackhawk, Mabel Palmer, Publications, Quota Club, Women, Women's Organizations
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Leap Year: When Ladies Ruled the Dance Floor
Happy Leap Year! As February 29, 2012 arrives, most of us will only give it a passing thought. Others, like Leap Year babies, will be able to blow out birthday candles on their actual birthday. Maybe even a few adventurous … Continue reading
When Davenport Marched
Davenport Civil Rights History The Davenport Civil Rights Commission recently put together a Walking Tour of Davenport, highlighting sites important to the development of Civil Rights in the city. Landmarks on the tour include businesses, churches . . . and … Continue reading
Say (and spell) What?: Tricky research words
Genealogy words can be tricky—ahnentafels, anyone?—and words that look or sound alike don’t help much. In order to facilitate communications and understanding—and humor, of course—we’ve collected a few of the most frequent mix-ups we’ve encountered, with definitions and examples: ____________ … Continue reading
Cool Donations: The Priester Collection
The Priester Construction Company has been a part of Davenport, Iowa since Walter and Oscar Priester, both native Davenporters, founded it in 1919—in fact, the company seems to have helped build most of it, from schools to companies to the … Continue reading
Posted in Library, Local History
Tagged Architechture, library, new resources, Priester Construction
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Bird’s Eye View: The aerial photography of Phil Hutchison
Phil Hutchison was the chief photographer for the Davenport Daily Times, Times-Democrat and Quad-City Times for 30 years. He succeeded Joe Boll, who left the Times to become advertisement manager of the Bureau Farmer, in March of 1946. He took … Continue reading
Auld Lang Syne . . .
2011 has been a good year around here. We’ve received many new resources from family histories to land records, Shakers to Palatines. We’ve even added a few new databases to our arsenal. We’ve had great programs, like our Specifically for … Continue reading
Posted in Genealogy, Library, Local History
Tagged Genealogy, Just Shelved, library, Local History
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Just Skating By . . .
The river frequently froze over smooth, and made wonderful skating, particularly distance skating. A favorite stunt was to skate from Davenport downstream as far as Rock River—a matter of five or six miles. Sometimes, if there happened to be a … Continue reading
Posted in Local History
Tagged Edward Kunkel, Ice Skating, Mississippi River, Vander Veer Botanical Park, Winter
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A Street by Any Other Name: Kimberly Road
The street known as Kimberly Road in both Davenport and Bettendorf was dedicated on December 14th, 1936. This road was an extension of U. S. Highway No. 6 and it passed through what at the time was the northern section … Continue reading
Posted in Local History
Tagged Davenport (Iowa), David W. Kimberly, Kimberly Road, Street names
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In Their Own Words: Pearl Harbor
In 2001, our Special Collections Center was privileged to conduct oral history interviews with several area World War II veterans and others who were personally connected to the War, both home and abroad. On this 70th anniversary of the attack … Continue reading
