250 Years of American History in the Quad Cities
In honor of the United States of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, The Putnam Museum and Science Center and the Davenport Public Library are teaming up to share how the Quad Cities fits into our nation’s history!
Working through a timeline from our country’s founding to recent history, the podcast will feature artifacts from the Putnam Museum and archives from the Davenport Public Library’s Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center. The podcast will use these to illustrate the fascinating and surprising stories of our community within the bigger picture of the nation.
Join us to hear about some of the most notable artifacts you can see at the Putnam Museum (and some that are protected behind locked doors) that connect Quad Citians to national milestones. Learn about the documents housed at the Davenport Public Library that tell the stories of these events, and the books you can check out to learn more!
Episodes
Artifacts & Archives: Episode 2
Black Hawk Treaty and the LeClaires What put Antoine and Marguerite LeClaire in the right place at the right time to be an instrumental part…
Artifacts & Archives: Episode 1
Thomas Jefferson, the American Mastodon and Nation Building What links one of our nation’s founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, the fossil finds of a giant beast,…
Additional Resources
Views expressed during this podcast belong to the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect those of the Davenport Public Library or the Putnam Museum & Science Center. Hosts attempt to use historically accurate language and racial terminology set forth by the Smithsonian Institute. We are committed to intellectual honesty and scholarly integrity in presenting information and objects described in this podcast.
