History Meets Inspiration
Innovators, inventors, and trailblazers change the world every day. The Quad Cities area has seen many throughout our history. Did you know that sliced bread was invented here by Otto Rohwedder? Or that the man who broke the Chicago Cubs color line, Gene Baker, was from Davenport, Iowa?
Quad City Innovators, shares the incredible stories of these innovators, inventors, and trailblazers through hands-on interactives and fun learning experiences in our updated Fab Lab! This exhibit will spark hometown pride and inspire future change-makers!
Do YOU Have What it Takes to Innovate?
Find inspiration amongst these inventive, innovative and trail blazing Quad Citizens. World changing ideas can happen anywhere and these people proved it can happen right here in the Quad Cities.
As you learn more about this people, we hope it inspires you to make your own ideas a reality. As you will learn some ideas are small and some are big, but your original ideas can make a lasting impact on our world. You’re never too young or too old to create something impactful. All it takes is a spark of inspiration, to set your mind in motion!
People & Inventions Featured in Quad City Innovators:
- Otto Rohwedder, bread slicer
- J.F. McCullough, Cecil Medd and Henry C. Duke, Dairy Queen and soft serve ice cream
- Palmer Family, chiropractic
- Voss Brothers, washing machine
- John Deere, steel plow
- Joe Whitty, taco pizza
- Fred Lundahl, Buddy L toys
- Fred Boetje, Boetje’s Mustard
- Nelly Cheboi, CNN Hero of the Year 2022 and founder of TechLit Africa
- Dr. William West Grant, first successful appendectomy
- Gene Baker, first African American on the Cubs roster
- Mary Solbrig, early airplane mechanic
- Chad Pregracke, environmentalist and 2002 Jefferson Award recipient
And many more!
