With the focus of its celebration a 1990 recipient of the United States National Medal of Technology – the highest national honor conferred for achievements related to technological progress – the February 23 program Birth of the Computer: The John Atanasoff Story will be held in Augustana College's Wallenberg Hall, offering attendees insight into the inventor of the electronic digital computer and his reported ties to the Quad Cities area.

Showcased at the Figge Art Museum through May 7, the touring exhibition Sporting Fashion: Outdoor Girls 1800 to 1960 will be on view in the Davenport venue's third- and fourth-floor galleries, and boasts 64 fully accessorized ensembles comprised of more than 480 historic objects.

One of the most fascinating of all oceanic creatures will be given an up-close-and-person look at the Putnam Museum & Science Center through February 4, when the venue displays the Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend, an examination of the water-based wonders from their depiction in the 1500s as angry sea monsters to their present status as icons of pop culture.

A literary classic adapted for the stage by a remarkable trio of professional talents, author Kenneth Grahame's beloved The Wind in the Willows enjoys a student-performed rendition at Davenport Junior Theatre from February 11 to 19, its creators including the Olivier Award-winning Mary Poppins team of composer/lyricists George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, and its book writer Julian Fellowes, the Academy Award and Emmy winner responsible for Gosford Park and Downton Abbey.