New Quad Cities Burlesque Museum Is Unique In Region and Nation
Danielle Colby has built an impressive body of work as a burlesque performer, passionate history buff, and co-star of the long-running History cable series, “American Pickers.”
Now a new museum showcasing a fraction of her extensive collection of adult entertainment is open in the heart of downtown Davenport, once known as the “wickedest city in America.” Saturday night, June 21 was the grand opening of the Ecdysiast Arts Museum (322 Brady St.), a one-of-a-kind celebration of burlesque, artistry, and unapologetic expression, unique in the region and the nation.
Behind a pink door (open by appointment only to those age 21 and up), the ground-floor museum is in an 1895 building owned by Trish Duffy, last used for PMR Marketing and vacant for several years.
The term “ecdysiast” (pronounced “ehk-DEE-zee-ast”) was coined by H.L. Mencken, based on a Greek word for a performer who removes their clothes.
The Ecdysiast Arts Museum is the only one of its kind, and isn’t limited to burlesque, Colby said recently. It encompasses nudity, in film, video, photography and books.
The Ecdysiast Arts Museum, 322 Brady St., Davenport, is open by appointment only, with admission prices varying by day and type of event.
“It’s important that all of these stories get told, not just the ones in proximity to wealth or sparkle,” she said. “Burlesque is a part of the story, but the whole world of the ecdysiast is really our whole story. Anyone who monetizes off their nudity is what we cover. It’s a huge field of research.”
The exhibits (which include costumes, dresses, photos, posters, banners, accessories, jewelry and books) will be rotated and the museum plans to host live performances every weekend, up to three times a week.
Colby will feature displays on adult film performers from over the 20th century, but will not show any films.
“Give to them what was not shown over their life, which is respect and admiration, and a soft space,” she said. “They’re human – before they’re a stripper, they’re human. We can’t lose that, because that’s what we lose when we take that away. When we take away their contribution, we stand on sand. We can’t build a museum and appropriate what they did and not give them that respect.”
While some people feel that nudity demeans and objectifies women, Colby said that can be true. She recommended the new documentary about Jayne Mansfield (by her daughter, actress Mariska Hargitay), “My Mom Jayne.”
“It’s always a loaded concept to dehumanize someone for what they have or what they do for a living, especially if it’s not harming people,” she said. “We try here not to dehumanize anyone. That leads to destroying people for existing. Some people are made to be ecdysiasts.”
Performers can truly inspire others through this art form, Colby said. Her museum aims to educate people about what they don’t understand.
Danielle Colby (who does burlesque as Dannie Diesel) stands next to the museum stage on June 29, 2025 (photo by Jonathan Turner).
“The most important part of what we’re doing is to assign value to people and conversations that have to be acknowledged,” Colby said. “It is a life.”
“These people are living; they’re deserving of respect like every human being is,” she added. “I can’t shame any one of these performers for what they did, because each one of them touched our lives enough that we put them on a pedestal.”
Sex work is work, and whether people want to acknowledge it or not, “sex work is the first work ever done,” Colby said. “We’re just trying to give it a place where these folks can have their own sense of dignity, even if the world didn’t want to give it to them.”
Freedom of expression
Colby, 49, has been doing ecdysiast work for about 28 years, starting modeling nude for local photographers, and did go-go dancing and striptease in Chicago.
She and friends started the troupe Burlesque le Moustache. There are several burlesque troupes now in the QC, which she is thrilled to see.
It’s popular now because it’s more acceptable, compared with other kinds of stripping and naked work, she said.
“It’s very hard work,” Colby said, noting it’s very theatrical. “Burlesque as we know it today, really started with European opera and with enslaved peoples too, who had fun mocking their masters.”
“It’s still that kind of conversation today, it’s very political,” she said. “It’s about autonomy; it’s about freedom of self-expression; it’s about how far you can push it as an artist. It’s about creating an environment where everyone in the room, no matter where they’re from, can celebrate with you.”
The Ecdysiast Arts Museum, 322 Brady St., Davenport, is open by appointment only, with admission prices varying by day and type of event.
“This does give another space for anyone – everyone – in this community who wants to support this, is welcome here,” Colby said.
She wanted to start the museum as a bold new cultural destination devoted to preserving and honoring the powerful history of burlesque, which was very popular in downtown Davenport in the early 20th century.
“We need spaces for community to learn about all this, so the history just doesn’t go away,” Colby said. “So much of our history is oral history – especially Black, brown and trans history.”
“I just wanted to know where everything came from,” she said of her passion for history. “Where did the costumes come from? Who made them? Are they made by a company or are they made by the performers?”
“It all just kind of snowballed,” she said. The museum will host classes and speakers, as well as regular performances (local and visiting) every weekend.
She started the inaugural Iowa Burlesque Festival at the Adler Theatre in 2013, over a weekend, and was done just two years. Colby may bring that festival back, since she’s back so close to the Adler.
Small part of collection on display
Before stating the museum, Colby had her extensive collection in storage units, and is only displaying under 10 percent of what she owns – what’s most rare, iconic, and relevant to what’s happening in the world today.
Current items include:
- Costume of Lily Langtry (1853-1929), from the Princess Theater in London, 1890.
- Marionette of Christa Speck (1942-2013), a 1961 Playboy Playmate.
- A bathtub owned by Mae West (1893-1980), picked on “American Pickers,” came from a luxurious bathhouse in Michigan. It had been on display in Michigan for quite a while.
- A sink from the Hotel Metropolitan in Paducah, Ky. Many famous people stayed there, including Tina Turner and Count Basie, where they got their hair done. That green sink also was obtained on “American Pickers.”
- Large banner from the ‘60s near the entrance, which Colby called “truly iconic and important,” since it advertised a “sex attraction,” a he/she act (a trans artist) Hedy Jo Star (1920-1999) from the circus, who continued to be a costume designer and burlesque performer. Her costumes are part of the museum collection.
- Banana belt owned by Josephine Baker (1906-1975), among the most celebrated performers to headline the revues of the Folies Bergèrein Paris. Her performance in its 1927 revue caused a sensation in the city. Her costume, consisting only of a short skirt of artificial bananas and a beaded necklace, became an iconic image and a symbol both of the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties.
The Ecdysiast Arts Museum, 322 Brady St., Davenport, is open by appointment only, with admission prices varying by day and type of event.
Colby said both the Langtry and Baker items are “priceless.”
- Items of Sally Rand (1904-1979), Colby bought the collection of her museum in her Kansas City home. Rand, who was famous for fan dances, also danced at the Hotel Blackhawk Gold Room in Davenport. “She danced at the Palmer House too, because she was really close with the Palmers,” Colby said. “Part of the reason circus folks and burlesque dancers would come here was they could get care from D.D. Palmer and B.J. Palmer.”
- Items of Rose LaRose (1916-1972), one banner proclaimed her “Queen of Burlesque.” “She was a very sassy, strong-willed woman,” Colby said.
The collection includes several photos of Black and Asian performers.
“There’s not a lot out there, so we really try to hold onto that history as much as possible,” Colby said of performers of color. One of the displays is a costume from the contemporary Black burlesque legend Perle Noire.
The museum highlights Blaze Starr (1932-2015), who was one of the most famous burlesque performers, known as “The Stripper Who Ran Louisiana,” partly for her affair with the state’s governor, Earl Long.
Colby bought the entire burlesque collection of the iconic Swedish Housewife, based in New York.
The museum includes a rare 1980 Braille edition of Playboy, among a four-part Braille series. “I think it is mostly the articles,” Colby said. “I just love to have it here.”
There’s a costume of Tempest Storm (1928-2021) who was “burlesque mother,” and wore this when Colby met her in Nashville, and wore it again when she was crowned Queen Burlesque at the first Iowa Burlesque Festival.
“We spent a lot of time together, we talked,” Colby said of Storm. “We talked about everything. That was the beautiful part, we were able to have a conversation about anything. She was very traditional in how she approaches her business, in how she approaches her life.”
She appeared in a 2016 documentary about Tempest Storm, which was shown in Cannes.
Danielle Colby in an episode of History’s “American Pickers.”
“It’s a really beautiful story about her life,” Colby said. “Her life was very tragic. She was often times known for who she slept with and not her accomplishments. She had an extremely long career. She broke her hip on stage performing, at 90.”
Colby had often visited the former Exotic World in Las Vegas, which became the Burlesque Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame Museum in Vegas has decided to indefinitely suspend operations effective July 20, 2025, but the Hall of Fame will remain open online.
At the Davenport museum, the eight permanent seats next to the stage are from the Metropolitan Hotel in Paducah, Ky., advertised in the Green Book, the compendium of places nationwide during the segregation era that were welcome to African-American customers.
“These are very special to us. We do have other seats we’re going to be bringing in as well,” she said.
Madame Nymphaea from Puerto Rico performing for the Ecdysiast Arts Museum grand opening on June 21, 2025 (photo by Jeremy Scheuch).
A true community effort
Many people in the QC burlesque community came to help clean, paint, organize and prepare for the museum opening.
“It truly was a community effort,” Colby (who is partnering on the project with her husband Jeremy) said. “How neat is that, that you can just go down the street and say, we need a cord, can you help us? This is really a magical place like that. The Quad Cities is very rare, you don’t see that everywhere.”
“I love this space so much,” she said.
Dahlia Dutch of the QC performs at the Ecdysiast Arts Museum grand opening (photo by Jeremy Scheuch).
“This is more than just a museum—it’s the realization of a dream, rooted in my love for burlesque and in the city I call home,” Colby said. “This is a sacred space where we celebrate performers not only for their beauty and bravery, but for the trailblazers they were. They carved out space in history by being bold, creative, and unashamed — and now their stories will finally be told with the respect they deserve.”
“Whether you’re a fan of vintage glamour, performance history, or powerful storytelling, this space is for you,” the Downtown Davenport Partnership posted on Facebook June 12. “It is so much more than a collection, it’s a conversation. A reclamation. A tribute to women with the incredible courage it takes to be seen and vulnerable.”
The next performance is this Saturday, July 5, with a “LatinEsque” show. For $40 admission, there will be a cocktail reception, museum tour at 7 p.m. and burlesque show at 8 p.m., with Chicago performers Sio Bast, Vivi Valens, and Sally Marvel; Iowa sensation Desdemona, and Colby performing as Dannie Diesel.
Gem Fatale from the Quad Cities performing at the museum grand opening June 21, 2025 (photo by Jeremy Scheuch).
The LatinEsque show will feature history of Norma Reyes, a well-respected Cuban dancer who was popular in Las Vegas and toured everywhere.
“LatinEsque” isn’t just a show, it’s a cultural experience where guests will be transported by the pulsing beats of Latin music, the shimmer of breathtaking costumes, and the power of burlesque as a platform for self-expression, resilience, and empowerment, according to a museum release.
Long misunderstood, burlesque has provided a space for performers who defied societal norms and bravely told their stories on their own terms, Colby said.
“This show invites everyone to tap into their own power,” she said. “Through the energy of Latin music and the artistry of Burlesque, we honor those who came before us—and inspire each other to move through the world unapologetically.”
$150 VIP tickets will include VIP seating, the reception, tour, show and a goodie bag featuring a sticker pack, T-shirt, signed burlesque photo of Dannie Diesel, a cast Polaroid after the show, a signed cast poster, and an after-party with the cast.
Colby has been on screen on “American Pickers” since the show start, launching on the History channel in 2010. They have filmed 402 episodes and are currently on hiatus, but will return.
For Ecdysiast, there are many upcoming events listed on the museum website, www.ecdysiastartsmuseum.com. It will be open (for ages 21+) by appointment only. Contact danielle@ecdysiastartsmuseum.com to set up a tour.
