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The print is a photographic assemblage that measures 17.5 inches x 37 inches. It's comprised of mostly three-dimensional objects that represent the many businesses that occupied Downtown Dubuque for several generations. It's historical and nostalgic. A large part of the print represents the vast collection of Dubuque memorabilia belonging to Dubuquer Bob Reding. Bob is retired from John Deere and he's an antique dealer specializing in Dubuque memorabilia. Half his home is dedicated to his incredible collection. I met him when I was doing the Dubuque 20th Century Print, and about 40% of that project was from Bob's collection. I also managed to collect a few things from other businesses in town, and they include Graham's Style Store for Men (long a fixture of downtown Dubuque), and Dolan's Deluxe Barbershop among businesses and individuals.
Above is a stock certificate from the Dubuque Central Improvement Company. Such financial instruments were common among banks of the time trying to raise money through the sale of stock for civic improvements. Area merchants were a ready market and often backed the sale of stock using their own property and businesses as collateral. Dubuque was a boom town in the 19th Century, a destination for entrepreneurs and a key staging area for the great westward migration of immigrants. A bank note issued from an old 19th-Century Dubuque Bank recently sold on eBay for over $10,000. They are highly prized by currency collectors.
Above
are some advertisements that give you a sense of what things cost
a half century ago. You could buy two nice dresses at Jordan's for
$7.77. The record in the upper left corner above, is "The Duke
of Dubuque," courtesy of the Paul Hemmer Collection. My good
buddy, Paul (and Jan) have long been collectors of special Dubuque
memorabilia, especially anything to do with broadcasting and
I personally have taken photographs of nearly 300 items that represent businesses, most gone from the scene, but several still known or still in operation today. The best collection of such business memorabilia belongs to a gentleman I worked with at John Deere Dubuque Works many years ago. He was an antique dealer on the side, and he often told me about his collecting habit. He collected anything and everything that had to do with Dubuque. I was publishing a magazine at John Deere at the time, and he collected those! He is a Dubuquer born and raised, and he admitted he had an abiding love for Dubuque history, legends, and especially its business history.
To make the subject of this work of art resonate with those who view it and have any connection to Dubuque at all, I particularly looked for items that would evoke the downtown area's vibrant retail establishments. For example, at one time there were over a dozen places where you could buy shoes in the downtown area. I have included the engraved shoe horns from nearly all of those shoe stores. I know when I was a kid, going downtown to buy shoes was a big deal. I included a Buster Brown comic book that Bob had from Roshek's shoe department.
There's all kinds of things in this print that you'll just have to study it more closely to discover. That's the point of this piece. You're supposed to walk right up to it and put your nose practically on the glass. It's reminiscent of those days we would go downtown and press our noses against the glass at Roshek's Department Store and stand in wonder at the animated Christmas scenes before we would go inside to see Santa Claus. The print will be unveiled February 15th at the Julien Hotel at the big Downtown Business PM hosted by the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce at 5 PM. I'll be on hand to unveil the print in various frame styles from Brownstone Gallery and Creative Touch Gallery. I'll be signing and personalizing prints for as long as we have customers. The prints go on sale for a very special introductory sale price of only $35 with proceeds benefiting Dubuque Main Street Ltd. I love to do this at an unveiling to reward my fans and those who show up and want to talk about the project. So come down to the Business PM at the Julien and let's chat it up about the old Dubuque Main Street. |
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Among
the most spectacular treasures in this collection in my mind is
this cast metal shield whose purpose is not clearly known, but contains
the name of the Bell Bros. Co. This is the company that owned the
building on which the first Dubuque Town Clock was erected. Alas,
it was too heavy for the building beneath it, and it suddenly collapsed.
There was a casualty as a result. Shopping was apparently more dangerous
back then than it is today. This is the only known nameplate of
its kind anywhere in Dubuque that I know of. It is made of brass,
and it measures approximately 2 inches square.
This
is a ticket in mint condition on which the engraved signature of
J.K. Graves is displayed. This is an important treasure because
Graves, a friend of U.S. presidents Lincoln and Grant, was an innovative
financier of the mid to late 19th Century. He built the first two
Fenelon Place Elevators (the first one was destroyed in a fire).
He was one of the early developers of our downtown business district,
and he was a passionate believer in light rail public transportation
systems (trolley's). He traveled to Europe by steam ship, quite
an investment of time and money in those days, and in Switzerland,
he saw short railways called funiculars that went straight up and
down mountains winched by cables. When he returned to America, he
created a cable car that connected Fenelon Place on the top of the
bluff, where he had his home, to Fourth Street below. This convenience
eliminated the need for a horse and buggy and he could avoid the
long and winding trip from home to work and back again. The Fenelon
Place Elevator allowed J.K. to go home at noon for lunch and a nap.
entertainment.
Paul's record collection is quite something, but he also had a couple
of photographs I used in the assemblage, among them photos of Rona's
Record Department at Stampfer's Department Store. This fine lady
sold a lot of records. Her record department was a symphony of blonde
wood paneling and neatly organized record bins, and there were the
private listening booths where you could actually listen to a record
before deciding to buy it. In the 1950s and '60s, Rona was a hitmaker,
and the local radio disc jockeys (and I was one of them at the time)
knew it.
For a time,
my friend, Bob Reding, who now lives in a new home in Asbury, had
a shop on Central Avenue I visited often. One day, he invited me
to his home on Lemon Street that was completely filled with the
Dubuque portion of his vast collection of business and industry
collectibles. I spent hours at Bob's going over all of his things.
He had some items that were so unusual, that they defy description.
've
spent most of my life in Dubuque, and my memories of Dubuque's
Downtown go back to the 1960s. My parents actually drove
out here in the 1950s from our home in Chicago because my
dad said he thought we had relatives in Dubuque. It was
my first glimpse of the Mississippi River. I'll never forget
that... however, I don't remember our relatives.
Many of you may remember my Dubuque Millennium Print of five years ago. It was a collection of 350 items, photos and memorabilia from several collections in our community. It all came together to celebrate Dubuque's 20th Century. When I was working on that project, I came across hundreds of items that I didn't use in that composition but that I had hoped I would use later. I found many items from Dubuque businesses. Businesses used to do much of their own advertising and promotion by giving away items with the business' name on them. Items such as ink blotters (people used fountain pens before cheap ball-point pens became popular), pencils, matchbooks (you don't see them so much any more), rulers, yardsticks, tape measures, thimbles, little coin banks, coin purses, shoe horns, key and watch fobs, letter openers, and all sorts of gewgaws and knickknacks were commonplace. 
Businesses don't do nearly as much of this today, and the items they do engrave their names on tend to be utilitarian in interesting ways.... refrigerator magnets, mouse pads, cheap calculators, and coffee mugs. Coffee mugs are, surprisingly, a very recent business giveaway phenomenon because engraving them has become a very inexpensive proposition. It caused me to speculate what types of things businesses may give away in the near future. Those "thumb drives" some people wear around their necks these days and plug into their computer to download or upload files are getting cheap enough. I'm sure they will become a specialty advertising item as common as a pen.
This art project began with my own photograph of the famous Town Clock that has presided over commerce in Dubuque for more than a century. I not only included businesses that were right on Main, but the surrounding streets as well. Several Dubuque history buffs have told me repeatedly that Dubuque's Main Street was not really it's signature nor the busiest main thoroughfare in its early history. What is now Central was really the busiest business avenue in Dubuque. It was called Clay Street on the southern end of town, and Couler Avenue on the northern part of town. 