Davenport’s German American Center to Show Off Overhauled Permanent Exhibit
You can’t rewrite history, but you can change how it’s presented. That’s just what Davenport’s German American Heritage Center & Museum has done with its permanent third-floor exhibit, “The German Immigrant Experience: 1845-1925.”
There will be a ribbon-cutting for the updated exhibit at 1 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 7, with light refreshments. Much of the exhibit was overhauled and expanded. There were vinyl banners that showed their age and had curled, GAHC assistant director Clare Tobin said Wednesday. The new panels extend to the end of the wall.
The old exhibit was more a strict chronology and timeline, whereas now it tells a more detailed story of German immigration by topic, reflecting its causes, immigrants’ challenges and their work to blend into American society.
This 1902 print by Kathe Kollwitz is among an exhibit of German Expressionist artwork in the first-floor gallery through Dec. 14, 2025 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“We want to talk more about the immigrant experience,” Tobin said. “It touches more on why they left, what they arrived to. It was hard. There were a lot of nativist attitudes, so they weren’t always welcome.”
“People didn’t want them to vote,” she said of Americans’ attitudes toward immigrants in the mid-19th century. Germans in Iowa voluntarily joined the Union Army during the Civil War, as they were strongly opposed to slavery.
“Serfdom was still a thing in Germany and they left because they didn’t like that,” Tobin said. “They saw what was happening in the United States, but they were very willing to enlist and fight for the Union side. This was their home and they wanted fair and equal treatment for everybody.”
Prints by David and Sarojini Johnson will be on display in the third-floor gallery through Jan. 4, 2026 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
There are spacious, pictorial new panels, including maps of the U.S. that show the concentration of German immigrants (by percentage of the total population) in 1900 and in 2020. In the most recent census, Iowa is among six upper Midwest states (including Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota and the Dakotas) where people with German ancestry comprise over 30 percent of the population.
In 1900, the U.S. Census documented that over half the citizens in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota were German immigrants or their descendants. Scott County, where the first passenger railroad crossed the Mississippi River, was the entry point for many immigrants to the upper Midwest region and points west.
The exhibit adds more photos of the area, and there’s a section (which was there before) more specific to Davenport and the Quad Cities.
The nearby “All Aboard” children’s area was installed in fall of 2024 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“People have a connection to the area,” Tobin said of why the region and state retains that strong German-American presence. “As a Midwesterner, I like the Midwest. I grew up here, my family’s here. I think that has a lot to do with it too.”
“The river valley was the big draw, for lumber and the pearl button industry,” she said of why many Germans chose to settle in the Davenport and Muscatine areas along the Mississippi. “There was a lot of farmland they could get cheap.”
An existing nearby interactive exhibit (“Across the Atlantic”) is more kid-friendly, opened in fall 2024, giving visitors the choice of seeing how immigrants traveled from Europe to America, like a steamboat. There’s a small model hotel room, furnished how it would have been for German immigrants in the 1860s.
The $25,000 renovation project was completed by Edwards Creative of Milan (photo by Jonathan Turner).
The four-story building (712 W. 2nd St., Davenport) was originally the Standard Hotel (built in the 1860s) where thousands of German immigrants stayed in the 19th century when they arrived in the area. The building was purchased in 1995, partially restored in 1999, and reopened to the public in May 2000.
In October 2009, GAHC debuted a newly expanded space including a new large interactive permanent exhibit called the “German Immigrant Experience,” two traveling exhibit spaces, and large program facilities. GAHC offers several new programs based on the permanent exhibit and two temporary exhibit spaces.
The German immigrant experience is an integral part of the history and fabric of life in Iowa, in the region and in the nation. The German American Heritage Center (GAHC) was formed in 1994 to document and celebrate this heritage.
Last year, GAHC celebrated its 30th anniversary. “We wanted to give people something new to see,” Tobin said.
New artifacts from the collection on display include an 1860s-era steamship trunk, a copy of the Schleswig-Holstein constitution from 1848, and a Scott County citizenship application from 1882.
The permanent “German Immigrant Experience: 1845-1925” was recently updated and expanded, its first main overhaul since opening on the third floor in 2009 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
There is a passenger ticket from the steamship Cleveland, a photo of the ship (believed to be one that brought Bix Beiderbecke’s family to America), and 1903 menus from the ship, in German and English.
The total renovation project (led by Edwards Creative of Milan) cost $25,000, and GAHC this past spring lost an Iowa Historical Society grant of over $10,000, when National Endowment of Humanities cut many grants nationwide. “Thankfully, a few key donors helped make that up,” Tobin said.
The interactive Passport Experience kiosks on the floor have been up a few years, and visitors can choose among four passports of real German immigrants (two women and two men) from Davenport, and follow their journey from the old to new worlds, with video displays.
“These are really fun; the videos are well done,” Tobin said of those kiosks. “Visitors I think really love this. I like to listen to a story rather than read it. Certainly, people can read, listen, watch, different ways to learn.”
Other center news
The GAHC is still seeking a new executive director, to succeed Brian Allen, who became head of Quad City Arts this past April 1. The organization operates with a budget of $466,150 and 3.5 staff, supported by 35-40 volunteers and a community board of 15. Tobin is not a candidate for the job, and said they are starting to interview people, with a goal of having the new director by September.
“We have relied a lot on our volunteers,” she said, noting they have just two full-time staff and one part-time employee. “Our volunteers are kind of keeping us afloat.”
On the first floor, there is a collection of German Expressionist prints, amassed over four decades by printmakers and educators David and Sarojini Johnson, based in Iowa City. Their own artwork is featured on the GAHC third floor in a temporary exhibit through Jan. 4, 2026.
The first-floor exhibition (on view until Dec. 14) emphasizes the contributions of German Expressionist artists, with examples of art condemned by the Nazis as degenerate and the legacy of printmaking around the world. With prints from artists such as Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, Lea Grundig, and more, visitors can explore the techniques, rich stories, and intense emotions that were woven into the cultural fabric of Europe in the early 20th century.
They have not cut back on programming in the interim. Upcoming events include:
- Sunday, Aug. 10 – Collectors, educators, and artists David and Sarojini Johnson have spent decades sharing and practicing the art of printmaking. Each with their own vision and inspiration, together, their works represent a beautiful partnership and interpretation of the medium. The program will begin at 1:30 p.m. with refreshments on the 4th floor and then join the Johnsons on the 1st floor to learn about their German Expressionist print collection, and then on the 3rd floor to view David and Sarojini’s original works. It’s free for members and $8 for non-members.
- Sunday, Aug. 24 – To kick off the GAHC film series with the Last Picture House this fall, this discussion will begin with a viewing of “Cinema’s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood,” which traces the experiences of the exiles who took refuge in Hollywood, and examines their impact on both the German and the American cinemas. After the viewing, Moline-based filmmakers Tammy and Kelly Rundle will lead a dynamic discussion about some of the most influential films, actors, and directors of this time.
Again, refreshments will be at 1:30 p.m., with program starting at 2 p.m. It’s free for members and $8 for non-members. The schedule of Last Picture House screenings (all Wednesdays at 6 p.m.) will be:
- 3rd – “Sunset Boulevard”
- 10th – “The Big Heat”
- 17th – “Shanghai Express”
- 24th – “From Here to Eternity”
- 1st – “Casablanca”
For more information on the center, check out its Facebook page HERE.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.