The newly created Davenport Municipal Art Gallery opened its doors to the public in October of 1925. Fourteen thousand people – a fifth of Davenport’s population – visited the gallery on West Fifth Street near Main in its first three months. Charles August Ficke’s initial gift of 270 traditional European, Asian, and Mexican paintings to the city of Davenport created the momentum and need for a municipal gallery, one of the earliest in America.
