KHP Donations

Your donation increases understanding and appreciation of Knoxville’s history and culture. 

 

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We are grateful for every donation to the Knoxville History Project. Your gift makes our work possible. Thank you.

At the end of 2025 and extending into 2026, KHP is celebrating its 10th anniversary. We are incredibly proud of all the stories, research projects, publications, programs, podcasts, and art wraps that we have accomplished during KHP’s first decade. You can download a PDF of our 10th anniversary brochure here. 

Your support directly helps us engage residents and visitors to learn more about the fascinating history and culture of this city and its complicated and dynamic heritage through research, in-person and online programs, tours, publications, podcasts, and public art projects.

Priorities for 2026: As KHP moves into its second decade, priorities include finally publishing our Historic South Knoxville book in 2026, highlighting the district’s pioneers, industries, communities, and notable individuals. As soon as that book is completed, we will begin work on multi-year book project to tell the fascinating stories of Greater Historic Knoxville, including the satellite towns and hamlets known mainly just by name and a few facts, encompassing a circle within a 30- to 90-minute drive from the city. We shall outline the cultural, political and economic histories of towns in the area—most them of them distinctively different from all others—and describe how they connect with Knoxville’s own history.

In the spring, we will launch a new cultural history series at the newly renovated Eugenia Williams House on Lyons View Pike. The Aslan Foundation have done a stunning job resurrecting the house and the grounds, which will be a memorable backdrop for KHP historians and guest speakers to tell some new stories.

To coincide with the 235th anniversary of the founding of Knoxville in 1791, KHP plans to host a new symposium and other related programs and field trips. “The Road to Knoxville: How Revolutionary War veterans and pioneers claimed a new land, founded a new city, and forged a new state on the western frontier” will also tie-in with the nation’s America250 commemoration in 2026.

We are also in the early stages of research and conducting interviews with local historians, musicians, promoters, and journalists to create a new Knoxville Music Archive. The goal is to document notable shows at the city’s major and minor venues, many that are long gone but favorably remembered. In addition to collecting new stories, we are also seeking to expand KHP’s Knoxville Shoebox initiative through digitally shared photographs, show posters, flyers, and related ephemera.

KHP also has plans to begin research on at least three new community history projects for cultural partners that we will announce as plans solidify in the new year.

 

Give $50 or more and receive our monthly Scruffy Citizen stories for our donors via email throughout the year.

Donate $100 or more and you will receive a copy of our annual printed story collection or a similar publication.

You can also help expand our Podcast Series through our special campaign on National Giving Day on December 2. Click HERE for more information. 

Please contact us if you would like to donate automatically every month.

For more information about KHP’s work and supporting us in other ways, please contact Paul James, Director of Publishing & Development at 865-337-7723 or paul@knoxhistoryproject.org

 

About our Historic South Knoxville book project: Several years in the making, KHP will publish a new full-color community history book on South Knoxville in the summer of 2026.. We’ll be covering the early pioneers and ferrymen who began to settle and earn a living along the south shore of the Tennessee River helping develop the district that became known as “South America.” We’ll tell the story of the bridges that connected the south shore with downtown proper – bridges that were often prone to destruction by floods and tornados – and the years when there were no bridges for farmers and pedestrians to cross at all.

 

 

We’ll highlight early neighborhoods and sites along Sevierville Pike, including the South Knoxville Baptist Church, D.M. Rose Lumber Mill, and African American Cal Johnson’s Racetrack, and the South Knoxville Grammar School. Plus; and feature Colonial Village, Island Home Park, Lindbergh Forest, Little Switzerland, South Haven, Vestal, and other neighborhoods that emerged throughout the decades.

We’ll also explore the Civil War sites: Fort Dickerson, Fort Stanley, and Fort Higley (now part of the impressive High Ground Park), as well as restored sites such as Loghaven, which began as a bohemian community created by the remarkable Myssie Thompson in the 1930s, and the Candoro Marble building.

 

New Program Series at Eugenia Williams House: We’ll launch a new educational series at the historic house on Lyons View Pike when the Aslan Foundation opens formally opens in April 2026. Programs will tell Ms. Williams’ story and emphasize Bearden history, river history, architecture, and much more.

Also, in partnership with the historic Bijou Theatre, KHP will begin research for a new book that tells a comprehensive history of the historic venue, including the 1817 Lamar House and the performing arts auditorium that opened in 1909.

Among other programmatic endeavors, KHP will resume the Knoxville Lives story compilation series with volume six, featuring stories by Jack Neely, Paul James, and guest writers.

 

ONGOING CORE PROGRAMS

Talks and Tours: KHP serves Knoxville residents and visitors through engaging educational programs, both in-person and online. Our programs illuminate the city’s past, incorporating new research and previously untold stories covering a broad range of subjects, presented by KHP staff and guest presenters.

Research Projects: KHP works with individuals, developers, property owners, government departments, and community-based organizations to research and produce new narratives expanding awareness and a better understanding of the city’s complex past.

“The Scruffy Citizen:” Freshly researched articles highlight a diverse variety of relevant but little-known stories from Knoxville’s past, shared with KHP supporters and then posted online.

Knoxville Chronicles Podcast: an ongoing series highlighting some of the most interesting of the city’s old stories that still have relevance today.

Knoxville Shoebox: We encourage community members to share photographs, brochures, and illustrations to be permanently archived for historical use. Selected images are highlighted in monthly articles in West Knoxville Lifestyle magazine.

Knoxville History Online: KHP’s website offers a comprehensive online resource, including stories, historic sites, image galleries, videos, podcasts, maps, and our online store.

Library Readership: To serve the general public, we produce hardback versions of KHP story collections for readers in the Knox County Public Library system.