A “soft opening” of the Bix Beiderbecke Museum and Archive Collection in Davenport, Iowa for patrons and donors is scheduled for July 21, to be followed a few days later by an opening for the general public. The Museum is located on the lower level of the historic Redstone Building on the corner of Main and Second Streets, which also houses the River Music Experience.
The Museum and Archive Collection has been established as a non-profit organization for the purpose of collecting, preserving and exhibiting material related to the life and career of the legendary cornetist and composer, who was a Davenport native.
The cornerstone of the Museum is a collection of materials from the Beiderbecke family obtained from Elizabeth Beiderbecke Hart and her brother Chris that include photos of Bix as a youth (some never seen before), letters he wrote to his family, and documents pertaining to his early years in Davenport, supplemented by collections compiled by Philip R. Evans, co-author of Bix: Man & Legend, and George Johnson, tenor saxophonist with The Original Wolverines.
Major Exhibits
Among the major exhibit items on display are Bix’s horn, the last piano he owned, a replica of the Hudson Lake Resort stage in New Carlisle, Indiana where Bix played in the summer of 1926, and instruments owned by Frank Trumbauer, Bill Rank, Eddie Condon, Pee Wee Russell, Chauncey Morehouse,
