Past Exhibits

  • August 18, 2020 - 4:00am to November 29, 2020 - 10:00am

    “I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be...

  • A (Hillbilly) History of Mountain Dew
    June 29, 2019 - 5:00am to January 27, 2020 - 11:00am

    Please note that while this exhibit ended in 2020, a few of the artifacts are still on display in the Museum of East Tennessee History.

    “[Mountain Dew]’s pretty much a religious obsession for me.”
    —Chris Whitley, 27-year-old superfan of Mountain Dew, Jackson, Mississippi

    Mountain Dew. Your parents likely warned you about the neon-...

  • The Museum of East Tennessee History at 25
    September 15, 2018 - 5:00am to June 9, 2019 - 12:00pm
    “Let us hasten to redeem time that is lost.”—Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey to those in attendance at the East Tennessee Historical Society's first annual meeting, May 5, 1834   Dr. J.G.M. Ramsey’s plea to save Tennessee’s past continues to reverberate in the galleries of the East Tennessee Historical Society’s museum, a permanent home for our region’s...
  • A Travelling Exhibition from the Museum of the American Military Experience--Now Extended Through August 26!
    January 20, 2018 - 4:00am to August 26, 2018 - 12:00pm

    Between 2006 and 2009, an international team of historians, archaeologists, and geographers traveled to France to rediscover and document where Fentress County-native Sergeant Alvin C. York made his heroic stand. In the Footsteps of Sergeant York, a traveling exhibition from the Museum of the American Military Experience, showcases...

  • Quilts from the East Tennessee Historical Society's Permanent Collection
    August 7, 2017 - 4:00am to January 2, 2018 - 11:00am

     

    East Tennessee families treasure quilts made by their ancestors. Besides warming and decorating the bed, quilts also serve as reminders of important events—births, weddings, service to our country, the death of loved ones. Often, these memories are preserved in notes attached to the quilts or through stories handed down to younger...

  • East Tennessee's Marble Industry
    November 19, 2016 - 5:00am to May 14, 2017 - 12:00pm

    East Tennessee marble is prized the world over. Come explore the industry that launched the rock's fame and crowned Knoxville as the Marble City!

    The marble industry was once an important sector of East Tennessee’s economy. By the mid-1850s, East Tennessee marble from Knox County had been chosen for the interiors of the Tennessee...

  • @ East Tennessee History Center
    November 19, 2016 - 5:00am to January 16, 2017 - 11:00am

    A special exhibit at the Museum of East Tennessee History through January 16 will remember the legendary life and legacy of Waymon Earl Terrell (1950-2015). Earl was well known to the Powell community, where he was regularly seen riding his bicycle and pulling a cart along the busy thoroughfares of Clinton Highway and Emory Road, his dogs often...

  • Knoxville's Contributions to American Popular Music
    April 16, 2016 - 5:00am to October 30, 2016 - 1:00pm

    In 1929 and again in 1930, Brunswick Records' Vocalion label set up a temporary recording studio at the St. James Hotel in downtown Knoxville and invited locals to come make records. These old-time, jazz, blues, and gospel recordings added Knoxville's voice to American popular music and inspired the next generation of country music stars. In an...