Virtual Presentation – “Charles A. Ficke: The Man and His Mansion,” December 20

Monday, December 21, 6:30 p.m.

Presented by the Davenport Public Library

An edifice no doubt familiar to Quad Citians who routinely venture through Davenport's Hamburg Historic District, the history behind stately mansion at 1208 Main Street – and the prominent German lawyer, businessman, mayor, and art connoisseur who once lived there – will be explored in the Davenport Public Library's December 21 presentation Charles A. Ficke: The Man and His Mansion, a fascinating virtual program by Dr. William Roba.

Ficke was born in Boitzenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and alongside his parents and seven siblings, he emigrated to Iowa's Scott County in 1852. As a youth, Ficke helped on the family farm and completed his grammar school education in Long Grove and Davenport, and rather than continue with high school, he became a dry-goods salesman in 1865. In late 1868, he began reading law, and after nearly a decade spent in the banking industry, Ficke entered law school in Albany, New York, in 1876. After graduation, Ficke returned to Davenport, opened a law practice, and established a farm-mortgage company.

In 1886, he was elected as county attorney, a position he held for two years, and in 1890, Ficke was elected mayor of Davenport and served two one-year terms. Among his accomplishments as mayor was the creation of the city's first public works department. Famously, however, his true passion was art, and in the 1890s, Ficke began collecting in earnest. On one trip to Europe, he purchased four Old Masters – the beginning of what would become a collection of more than 300 paintings. Ficke consequently became the benefactor of several cultural institutions in Davenport. Beginning in 1906, he served three years as president of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences (which later would become the Putnam Museum), the venue to which he would donate an important archaeological collection that included objects acquired through excavations that he financed as well as objects collected during his own travels in the southwestern United States, Mexico, and South America. To the Davenport Public Library, Ficke donated a small but important collection of rare books, including handwritten works on the Koran, illustrated manuscripts, and works from the 15th and 16th centuries. And the largest portion of Ficke's collection was his collection of paintings that he donated in 1925 to the newly established Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, which is now the Figge Art Museum. The venue currently boasts 334 of Ficke's paintings, among them his collection of 17th- and 18th-century Mexican colonial art that is considered to be among the finest in the country.

Charles A. Ficke: The Man and His Mansion will be presented at 6:30 p.m. on December 21 via the Davenport library's YouTube channel, participation is free, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7832 or visiting DavenportLibrary.com.