East TN Historical Society strives to preserve our past and connect us to it
Country music. Sports. The Smokies. All three contribute largely to the identity of the region known as East Tennessee. That’s why all three are subjects of programs and exhibits produced by the East Tennessee Historical Society.
Capturing what’s significant about the region and preserving it for the future is the task of the historical society. It’s been doing that job since 1834, when it was established as the East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society.
Collaboration is Key
It shares space in its Gay Street headquarters, the East Tennessee History Center, as well as the mission of historical preservation with three other entities: the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, the Knox County Archives, and the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (TAMIS), all departments of the Knox County Public Library. The historical society occupies the first floor with the Museum of East Tennessee History, which opened in 2008. Knox County Archives occupies the second floor, allowing access to property deeds, marriage records and the like. And on the third floor, the McClung Collection gathers reference materials, genealogical information and other research. TAMIS is housed in the basement of the building.
Dr. Warren Dockter, ETHS executive director, distinguishes their missions this way: “The McClung collects paper; we collect objects. It’s an unusual nonprofit-governmental partnership. We’re the more public-facing entity, and we lean on them for reference material, research and programming.”
Dockter, a native of Grainger County who earned his PhD in history at the University of Nottingham in England, leads a staff of 15 full- and part-time employees as well as volunteer researchers and university interns in the tasks of gathering materials, researching programs and exhibits and presenting them to the rest of us in East Tennessee. The society also works with 134 other history-gathering groups throughout the region as a resource and a promoter of their own programs and exhibits. Following the catastrophic floods in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Dockter also anticipated helping some groups recover and restore their collections.
Community Connections
The society is funded by a combination of state and local grants and private donations and fund-raising events like Biscuits and Bubbly and the East Tennessean of the Year evenings. It has between 1,200 and 1,500 members and focuses much of its programming on families in an effort to get young people interested in history. It works closely with the University of Tennessee and Lincoln Memorial University, serving as a source of research and relying on student interns to help them accomplish it. “Graduate students from UT have had internships at the ETHS which give them hugely valuable experience in museum studies,” says History Professor Dr. Vejas Liulevicius.
Every summer the ETHS hosts the History Hootenanny, a fun day of history-related programs, music and films at the History Center and the Tennessee Theatre across the street. The most recent one was centered around country music. Next summer the focus will be on sports as Knoxville opens its new baseball stadium on the outskirts of downtown.
It also produces three print publications: The Journal of East Tennessee History, which has been published since 1929; Tennessee Ancestors, a genealogical journal since 1978; and Newsline, which focuses on ETHS’s exhibits and programming.
And daily it invites the public and countless groups of students of all ages to browse the Museum of East Tennessee History and attend talks and programs about our past.
Bringing History to Life
The museum takes up the story of the region in the 1540s, when Hernando de Soto first explored here. It follows the establishment of pioneer settlements in what was Cherokee lands, the eventual removal of the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears, the Civil War, the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the birth of country music, the 1982 World’s Fair and much much more. Artifacts include a pioneer wagon, Davy Crockett’s long rifle, a See Rock City barn roof and an original Island Home trolley car. Exhibits are accompanied by audio recordings and videos that allow people of the past to tell their own stories. It’s also the first museum to incorporate QR codes into its exhibits that allow information to be read aloud to people with impaired vision. The project was developed by Karns Girl Scout Mia Warren for her Girl Scout Gold Award. In a room just off the main museum, colorful and interactive exhibits make history come alive for its youngest visitors.
Lisa Oakley, ETHS vice president and curator of education, says those hands-on activities and objects really help elementary-age students learn about the past. She customizes her presentations based on age and curriculum requirements as well as where in the region the students live. Middle school and high school students get involved through the regional National History Day contest that ETHS coordinates. Students conduct research and present their findings in whatever format they choose.
“I have been with ETHS for 33 years this month,” Oakley says. “I still learn something every day.”
“We punch above our weight,” Dockter says of the work the society does, crediting his staff for the accomplishment. “The quality of our work, the programs we put on — we do excellent work.”
His opinion is echoed by UT Early American History Professor Chris Magra. “The ETHS has helped me as a researcher and as a teacher to learn about the history of our region. I learn new things every time I tour the exhibits and attend the public workshops and talks… It would be hard to imagine doing my job without the ETHS.”
Always Adding More
Not that there isn’t always more to be done. Dockter and his staff are always striving to include more voices in the history of the region, especially those that haven’t always been represented, like Cherokee and Black voices and those of Hispanic immigrants. For years the ETHS has posted its First Families database online, which includes those people who were here in 1796, when Tennessee became a state. Now they’ve expanded it to Tennessee Ancestors, which allows people to find their families much later. “It opens the door for more people to take pride in their family research,” Dockter says. “Before 1870, it’s almost impossible for African Americans to trace their families. Tennessee Ancestors is available for everybody to take ownership of where they come from.”
Patrick Hollis, executive director of the Mabry-Hazen House, appreciates all that the historical society contributes to the community. “Through our shared goal of telling a complete narrative, we take people past simple memories into the complex world of times before us to understand how we arrived in our present. ETHS is a leader in preserving those stories and the resources required to tell those stories. I wouldn’t be able to learn as much as I have about the Mabry-Hazen family without the rich collection of documents and objects housed at ETHS.”
A project on the horizon is the three-year commitment revolving around the 250th anniversary of the United States. Dockter is vice chair of the state’s 250th commission, and ETHS will be developing lectures, workshops and exhibitions around the anniversary. They will launch in 2025.
All of the research, the exhibits, the lectures, the overall mission of the historical society adds up to connecting personal stories with those of the region. For instance, “everyone I know has a WWII story — their dad served, or a grandparent,” Dockter says. “So the history of the war becomes part of their story. That’s the magic of history. Historical forces touch real people. People matter. Stories matter.”