Earlier this year a couple of readers alerted me to an electronic curiosity making the rounds. James Booker, who died in 1983 at the age of 43, was a genius of jazz piano, one of those musicians other musicians speak […]
There was a time when the family holiday was less predictable. Although Thanksgiving harks back to an event in 1621, it wasn’t commonly celebrated nationally until the middle 1800s. For many years, Thanksgiving, with its associations with a Massachusetts event, […]
A recent weekly history page, sponsored by the Knoxville History Project, stirred up some interest in Knoxville’s ancient city flag. Long neglected, forgotten, practically unknown to most, it was designed and approved by City Council in 1896, just in time […]
This fall is the 90th anniversary of a watershed moment in historic preservation in Knoxville. In 1925, developers were planning the largest hotel ever built in East Tennessee, prepared in anticipation of the popularity of the Great Smoky Mountains National […]
Established as a war memorial about 70 years ago, the ridgetop park is drawing new interest. Sharp’s Ridge, Knoxville’s highest summit, straddles the northern part of town. Despite the difference in spelling, it’s believed to be named for the Sharpe […]
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the the old WNOX auditorium’s awkward fix. The state-of-the-art 1955 broadcasting and recording landmark at Whittle Springs never found its rhythm, and closed after only a few years. In recent decades, a […]
A movie called Genius was at Downtown West early in the summer. I missed my shot at Genius, and not for the first time. It got mixed reviews, in spite of its all-star cast: Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Laura […]
Compiled by Jack Neely for the Knoxville History Project. This weekend, just in time for Knoxville’s 225th birthday, is the opening of an unusual new exhibit at the University of Tennessee’s McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, on Circle […]
When you’re at the Tennessee Valley Fair this week, in the Jacob Building perusing the canned-vegetable exhibits, the quilt show, the student-art exhibit, watching the cake-decoration demonstration, it might be easy to forget you’re in the building where Knoxville discovered […]
Jack Neely is executive director of the Knoxville History Project. He has become one of Knoxville’s most popular writers and its unofficial historian. Jack is well known for his thoughtful, well-researched, and provocative pieces of long-form journalism, not to mention his books, speeches, and other public appearances...
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jack@knoxhistoryproject.org
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PAUL JAMES
Development Director
paul@knoxhistoryproject.org
(865) 300-4559
NICOLE STAHL
Administrative Coordinator
nicolestahl@knoxhistoryproject.org
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