Register now for KHP’s two-day symposium on the Smokies park movement on Friday, July 26 and Saturday, July 27 at the East Tennessee History Center.
This is a free event but registration is required. Please note, the walking tours are limited to 30 people per day. Lunches are also available to order for a fee.
Learn more and view the full program schedule on our Smokies page.
Thanks to everyone who attended KHP’s 8th annual luncheon and made it a huge success.
Your attendance and donations raised more than $3,000 to help fulfill our mission of researching, preserving, and promoting the history and culture of Knoxville.
This year, our special honoree for the new William Rule prize, for significant contributions to what we know about the city’s history, is historian and preservationist William Ross “Sandy McNabb.
Sandy McNabb is a former director of the Dulin Gallery of Art, forerunner to the Knoxville Museum of Art. As a preservationist in the mid-1970s he co-founded Knox Heritage and saved the Bijou Theatre. He contributed a chapter on “Architecture“ for the standard reference book Heart of the Valley, (ETHS, 1976) and served as president of ETHS. His book, Tradition, Innovation & Romantic Images: Architecture of Historic Knoxville (UT, 1991) remains the best-known book on the city‘s architectural history.
Watch the 11-minute tribute to Sandy McNabb HERE
Call 865-337-7723 or email paul@knoxhistoryproject.org
If you would still like to make a donation to support KHP and honor Sandy McNabb, please do so on our giving page.
KINDLY SPONSORED BY:
Luncheon Innovators:
John Z. C. Thomas
Luncheon Preservationists:
Charlie Baum
Bob & Lynne Davis
Deborah Franklin
Scott & Lynne Fugate
Melissa & Tom McAdams
Wayne & Margaret Ritchie
Merikay Waldvogel & Jerry Ledbetter
Luncheon Architects:
Linda Billman & Charles Manneschmidt
Mark & Laura Heinz • Sherri Lee
Dr. Dasha Lundy • Rosa Mar
Finbarr Saunders & Ellen Bebb
Cindy Spangler
This summer, the Knoxville History Project will mark and celebrate the 100th anniversary of when Knoxville leaders and outdoor enthusiasts took an inspirational idea by Annie Davis and created a remarkable grassroots movement to establish a new national park in the Great Smoky Mountains.
The goal of this multi-day event is to increase knowledge of, and appreciation for, Knoxville’s role in the planning and execution of Great Smoky Mountains National Park commencing a decade of considerable financial, political, and personal challenges involving the acquisition of more than 6,600 separate parcels of land.
KHP will tell the stories of the Knoxville civic leaders, conservationists and trailblazers who led pioneering efforts, against all odds, to make the national park a reality.
A two-symposium will be held at the East Tennessee History Center on Friday July 26 and Saturday July 27 with other related events to be announced soon.
Learn more about this event on our Birth of a National Park in the Smokies page.
Presenting “Mount Le Conte Peak” Sponsor:
“Smokies Trailblazers” Sponsors:
Partnering Organizations:
East Tennessee Historical Society
Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, Knox County Public Library
Tennessee Archive of Moving Image & Sound, Knox County Public Library
University of Tennessee Libraries
Smoky Mountains Hiking Club
Smoky Mountain Radio
WBIR TV
Just in time for the holidays, KHP has just published a new and expanded edition of its book, A Knoxville Christmas. Bringing together a selection of articles and essays on how Knoxvillians have celebrated the Christmas season, this illustrated, 120-page, book features 50 additional pages and many new pictures compared to the first edition.
Jack Neely, who has been writing annual Christmas stories for many years now, has added some new reflections on how Irving Washington’s early writings influenced how Americans discovered and adapted European Christmas traditions as their own. We’ve also included several of Jack’s Christmas essays from recent years. And since the first edition was published in 2017, the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound has acquired more home-movie reels of the Knoxville Christmas Parade over the years. So, with TAMIS’s permission, we’ve included a few film screenshots to add a splash of color to the history of Knoxville Christmas Parades. Finally, a selection of Harry Ijams’ inimitable Christmas family postcards in full color rounds out the new content.
If you’re looking for a handy stocking stuffer or an employee gift, this just may be the ticket. Now available for $14.95 in KHP’s online store and any day now will also be at Union Ave Books, the East Tennessee History Center, and other downtown stores.
Two new Downtown Art Wraps have been installed this month featuring new selections from the Knoxville Museum of Art’s “Higher Ground” collection.
“Young Woman with Parasol Reading” (circa 1915) by Catherine Wiley (left) is now on display at Clinch Avenue at 11th Street, while “Composition: Pop Goes My Easel” (1963) by Carl Sublett is at the busy intersection at Western Avenue, Broadway, Henley Street and Summit Hill Drive.
Funding has been provided by a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission and matching funds by The Grandiflora, a venue project under renovation on Magnolia Avenue.
View all Downtown Art Wraps here.
Research for the new Historic South Knoxville book is progressing well. We continue to talk with South Knoxvillians throughout the sector to gather information and discover new places and stories. One area we have been focusing on is the south end of the Gay Street bridge. We have connected with Roger Cunningham from Dallas, Texas, who is a descendent of Paul Cunningham, who along with Captain James White was one of the earliest settlers in Knoxville in the 1780s. We have learned that Paul Cunningham served as one of the first city commissioners in 1793, just after Knoxville was founded. He was also a major land owner on the south shore opposite the fledgling town. Paul’s son Alexander Cunningham established the first ferry across the river in 1792, which has led to us discovering the names of most of the ferryman who transported men, women, provisions and cattle across the river in the early days, particularly when there was no river bridge at that spot.
The hillside above where the Kerbela Temple is today was known as Gobblers Knob in the mid-late 1800s, and in 1902 served as the location for the South Knoxville High School, and later a few houses that are all long gone – only the “steps to nowhere” remain.
Although no longer a straight shot, Sherrod Road runs behind the Kerbela Temple and extends uphill toward the old Union Civil War Fort Stanley. The road was once considered a continuation of Gay Street beyond the bridge. Of particular interest has been the discovery of a house on Sherrod Road where a young Cormac McCarthy lived with his parents around 1941.
If you have any stories or photographs about South Knoxville, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Paul James.
KHP’s ongoing podcast series, Knoxville Chronicles, is reaching a much broader audience now that all episodes for Seasons One and Two are available on major podcast platforms that you should be able to find easily on your phone. So far, seven episodes have been produced for Season Two with more to come. Episode titles include:
A combined total of more than 1,500 episodes have been downloaded by listeners since March 1, 2023. Episode descriptions can be found on the KHP website or on podcast apps. Learn more on KHP’s Podcast page.
Thursday, June 29 at the Foundry at World’s Fair Park
Thank you to our sponsors, table hosts and guests who joined us for KHP’s Seventh Annual Knoxville History Luncheon this year.
KHP’s luncheon celebrates the city’s history and culture and serves as our signature fundraising event of the year, generating more than $30,000 towards KHP’s annual budget.
Our 2023 honoree, UT Professor Emeritus of art history Fred Moffatt, has been documenting the cultural history of Knoxville for more than half a century. He contributed a chapter on art for Heart of the Valley (ETHS, 1976), Knoxville’s seminal historical text, and has written exhibition catalogues for the Knoxville Museum of Art. His recent books include, The Life, Art, and Times of Joseph Delaney, 1904-1991 (UT Press, 2009), and Paintbrush for Hire: The Travels of James and Emma Cameron, 1840-1900 (UT Press, 2018).
If you would still like to support the Knoxville History Project please consider making a donation to support KHP’s work HERE.
Luncheon Sponsors
Linda Billman & Charles Manneschmidt • Bob and Lynne Davis • Scott & Lynne Fugate
Mark & Laura Heinz • Jerry Ledbetter & Merikay Waldvogel • Sherri Lee • Rosa Mar
Dationa and Stefan Mitchell • Wayne & Margaret Ritchie
Finbarr Saunders & Ellen Bebb • Cindy Spangler • University of Tennessee Libraries
Table Hosts:
Linda Billman & Charles Manneschmidt • Mayor Dan Brown • Steve Cotham & Lucille Griffo • Vicki Creed • Bob and Lynne Davis • Eric Dawson • Dr. Warren Dockter • Friends of Cavett Station • Friends of Knox County Public Library • Scott & Lynne Fugate • Knox Heritage • Jerry Ledbetter & Merikay Waldvogel • Sherri Lee Rosa Mar • Dationa and Stefan Mitchell • Old Gray Cemetery • Linda Phillips & Ken McFarland • Nikki Russler • Dr. Pat Rutenberg • Finbarr Saunders & Ellen Bebb • Erin Slocum • Kim Trent • University of Tennessee Libraries • Georgiana Vines • Adrienne Webster
Thank you to everyone for helping make this event a huge success.
In 2022, the Knoxville History Project received American Rescue Plan funding (Federal award number 21.027) through the U.S. Department of the Treasury and administered locally by the Arts & Culture Alliance and the City of Knoxville.
Funding supports several KHP educational priorities including monthly online talks, driving and walking tours, a new series of “Knoxville Chronicles Podcasts,” research on German architect Alfred Clauss who’s distinctive houses are situated on Little Switzerland Road in South Knoxville, and programs development for children. In addition, funding supports research and community engagement for KHP’s community history of South Knoxville.
Thank you to:
Financial contributions made to the Knoxville History Project directly help to engage increasing numbers of residents and visitors to learn more about the fascinating history and culture of this city.
Since KHP was established in 2014, the response to KHP’s continued output of research, programs, tours, publications, podcasts, and street art, has been remarkable. Several of our patrons have remarked that what KHP has been able to achieve, compared to similar cities across the United States, is extraordinary and unique.
This past year, KHP served more than 3,000 participants through 80 educational programs, both in-person and online. We continue to be the provider of talks and guidebooks for Leadership Knoxville and Introduction Knoxville, school teachers, UT public history students, and members of numerous other organizations and community groups.
We led monthly tours of the Eugenia Williams House on Lyons View Pike and support local tourism through regular blog posts and consultancy services for Visit Knoxville. We also a dependable source for local history information for local TV and radio stations who call on us almost weekly for help interpreting stories.
KHP published the following projects in 2022:
(Priorities in downloadable PDF format: KHP_2022 appeal_brochure_v3)
In 2023, KHP will undertake extensive research for a groundbreaking full-color community history book to be published in 2024. Given major developments along Sevier Avenue and Blount Avenue, coupled with the expansion of Ijams and the Urban Wilderness, a history of South Knoxville, the largest of the city’s sectors, is both timely and overdue.
We’ll dig into the early years, the pioneers who settled across the river when the area was outside of city limits and known as “South America.”
The landscape changed dramatically over the decades, marked by Civil War Forts and later marble quarries, and lumber mills, and wealthy businessman Perez Dickinson’s progressive and expansive Island Home estate. By the 1890s, the construction of a new Gay Street bridge brought the streetcar, and then automobiles paved the way for suburban growth.
The 1920s saw the emergence of the East Tennessee bird sanctuary along the river surrounding the Ijams family home, which was also becoming a Girl Scout camp, and adjacent to it a new campus the Tennessee School for the Deaf and the downtown Island Home Airport.
By the 1930s, the movement to establish a new national park brought increasing numbers across another new bridge, the Henley Bridge, south to a new “Highway to the Smokies,” named after Col. David Chapman.
Existing buildings such as Kern’s Bakery, Young High School, and Candoro Marble, and Loghaven, all renovated and re-used throughout modern day South Knoxville, are all cultural icons and have stories to tell.
We’ll also look at interesting South Knoxvillians including William Hastie, a Woodlawn Pike resident who became the nation’s first African American federal judge in 1937, and later territorial governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands; German immigrant and Bauhaus alumnus Alfred Clauss, the architect who conceived an all-modernist community on Little Switzerland; investigative journalist Paul Y. Anderson (1893-1938), who grew up in the Island Home area, and earned the Pulitzer Prize for his exposure of the Teapot Dome Scandal; and author Cormac McCarthy, who spent his adolescent years on Martin Mill Pike.
Finally, we’ll round up histories from all major neighborhoods, historic churches, cemeteries, schools, businesses, and other notable sites across the landscape.
Make a secure donation to support the work of KHP here. Thank you.
As we head into the fourth quarter of 2022, KHP has completed several key projects and looks set to finish others before the end of the year. Now available, KHP’s “Knoxville: A Walking Literary Guide” highlights Knoxville’s role in national literature by emphasizing sites downtown associated with writers well-known enough to be recognizable by the American reading public. It also serves as an introduction to the Knoxville-centric work of these authors. Experience the tour online here or find a free 32-page booklet at various outlets around town, including:
Also now online is KHP’s UT Campus Historic Walking Tour. This comprehensive tour starts on the Hill, taking in Ayres Hall, South College, Alumni Hall, and other notable buildings. A walk up Cumberland Avenue takes in the new architecture of the Min Kao Engineering Building before passing a series of remarkable buildings, including Hoskins Library, the old Cowan Gardener’s Cottage, and the remnants of Sophronia Strong Hall. Volunteer Boulevard also teems with a rich medley of structures, highlighting the modern “Ziggurat” that is Hodges Library alongside the Victorian Tyson House, and a series of classic statues, including “Europa and the Bull” at McClung Tower, and the ever-present “Volunteer” at Circle Park. A roundup of sports and entertainment stadiums, includes Neyland Stadium, Thompson Boling Arena, and the Pat Head Summitt memorial statue to name just a few. An optional leg takes in the soccer and softball stadiums off Neyland Drive before culminating (after a short drive or bike ride), over on the Agricultural campus with grand Morgan Hall, the enigmatic UT Indian Mound, and charming UT Gardens.
You can find this and more tours on our Downloadable Driving & Walking Tours page.
Please help us meet a new challenge grant goal to put two rarely seen works of art by Knoxville artist
Ted Burnett on the city’s streets and expand KHP’s Downtown Art Wraps initiative!
KHP has been awarded a challenge grant in the amount of $1,800 by the Tennessee Arts Commission to help fund two new art wraps featuring the paintings of Ted Burnett (1908-1982), a Jewish artist from Knoxville, whose work should be more broadly known, entitled “The Rabbi Saw Red” and “The King” from the East Tennessee Historical Society’s permanent collection. The location of the traffic boxes will be on Summit Hill Drive (at the intersections of Walnut and Locust Streets respectively) near where the Temple Beth-El and Jewish Community Center buildings used to be on West Vine Avenue before both moved to West Knoxville.
In addition, KHP will be creating QR code labels to apply to the existing Downtown Art Wraps to further engage the community about Knoxville’s deep and fascinating artistic legacy. Like our other wraps, we expect these two new installations to be in place for about five years.
If you would like to learn more about this challenge grant opportunity, or would like to make a contribution to help us meet the challenge goal of $1,800, please contact Paul James at KHP at 865-337-7723 or paul@knoxhistoryproject.org
See all the 34 existing art wraps here.
Thanks to everyone who joined us in honoring Steve Cotham for his considerable contributions to what we know about Knoxville’s history on June 30 at the Foundry.
For 35 years, Steve Cotham served as the manager of the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection at the Knox County Public Library before retiring in late 2021. During his tenure, he transformed the region’s most valuable research library, greatly expanding the collection’s offerings, introducing a digital catalogue and a tech-trained staff, enhancing its art collection, and incorporating the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound.
In 1999, Steve was appointed by Knox County Commission to serve as the Knox County Historian. He served as founding editor of the East Tennessee Historical Society’s genealogical publication, Tennessee Ancestors. And for the East Tennessee Historical Society, he was guest curator for two exhibitions, “Louis E. Jones–Artist of the Smokies,” in 2001, and “Mountain Splendor: Art and Artists of the Great Smoky Mountains, 1850-1950,” in 2009. In 2006, he produced a photographic book, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Steve served on the Knoxville History Project Board of Directors for five years.
If you would still like to make a donation in honor of Steve Cotham and to support the work of KHP, please visit our donation page at knoxvillehistoryproject.org/khp-donations/
This event raised more than $28,000 for KHP!
The Knoxville History Project has published a new book for Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series.
Downtown Knoxville highlights the visual history of the city’s iconic downtown core through 180 photographs, maps and illustration, many from the McClung Historical Collection and other local sources. The book features well-known classics that you will be familiar with as well as numerous photographs that are rarely seen, and as far as we know, have never been previously published. From the postcolonial years through the Civil War and onward to Knoxville’s emergence as an industrial city, downtown is where everything happened, the setting of the city’s most memorable stories and legends.
A 126-page book, Downtown Knoxville is now available for $23.99 through our online store and also locally at the Museum of East Tennessee History, Union Ave Books, and other select gift shops.
On the cover: Around 1925, crowds await the next sensation at the Bijou Theatre, known for vaudeville shows and dramatic performances by the local Peruchi Players. Across the street, the Cumberland Hotel, right, hosted a piano and phonograph store. Originally known as Schubert’s the well-known Victorian-era hostelry burned down in a fatal fire in early 1945. But the acoustically near-perfect 1909 Bijou thrives today as one of downtown’s liveliest attractions. (McClung Historical Collection, Thompson Photograph Collection.)
What can you expect from the Knoxville History Project this year?
We’ll start the year by publishing a new book, Downtown Knoxville, on January 24 featuring classic photographs and some you may have never seen before. We’ll also begin research for a community history of South Knoxville; extend the new podcast series, Knoxville Chronicles; and join other partners across town to not only celebrate, but also attempt to understand the lasting impact of the city’s biggest cultural event to date, the 1982 World’s Fair, which opened 40 years ago next May.
In addition, we have now just secured funding to produce a printed booklet to serve as a self-guided Downtown Literary Walking Tour.
Learn more about our work in 2022 in this PDF: KHP Priorities 2022.
Make a donation to support KHP’s work here.
While 2021 has been a challenge for us all, we can look back on the past 12 months with pride in numerous accomplishments. Please click on the PDF link below for our 2021 report.
Please stay in touch and let us know if you have a question about our work. We truly appreciate your support. Thank you.
Knoxville History Project 2021 Year in Review
Jack Neely, Paul James, and Nicole Stahl
KHP has produced a new book about the Women’s Suffrage movement in Knoxville, a readable guide to the major people and places involved in the fight for women’s rights. “A Fair Shake” is a motto of Knoxville’s leading suffragist, Lizzie Crozier French. Illustrated with dozens of photographs, the book includes short bios of her and her several colleagues, as well as descriptions of landmarks strongly associated with suffrage, many of them long gone, but some still there. The 100-page book’s principal author is our partner Laura Still, who has been telling many of these stories for a couple of years now, through the “Misbehaving Women” option of her Knoxville Walking Tours. The book also includes a book-ready version of Jack Neely’s tale of “Anderson, Harris, and Wade,” Knoxville’s own three legislators whose suffrage votes in 1920 counted as much as the suddenly famous Harry Burn’s did.
Available for $10.95 plus tax and shipping via KHP’s online store.
Two years ago, the Tennessee Valley Fair celebrated its 100th Fair with extraordinary high-wire motorcycle acts, historical exhibits, and special programs, plus all the regular fun and educational activities that we’re all accustomed to: the poultry and cattle barns, tractor pulls and the Demolition Derby, the concerts, robotics competitions, Lego-making, painting, crafts, photography, and beauty pageants. And on top of all that, all the fun of the Midway.
Knoxville documentarians, Pete Carty and Noble Robinette, with the help of the Knoxville History Project, Tennessee Valley Fair staff, Eric Dawson with Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (part of McClung Historical Collection, Knox County Public Library), and numerous volunteers helped capture the anniversary on film. Revisit the 100th Fair with us here and go and experience the 101st Fair this weekend before it ends on Sunday. We look forward to seeing you next year too!
May 1, 2022, will mark the 40th anniversary of the Knoxville International Energy Exposition, more commonly known as the World’s Fair. The Knoxville History Project will be partnering with individuals and organizations throughout the city to inform and educate the public as to the history of the Fair, its impact since 1982, and its ongoing legacy.
Through a grant from Humanities Tennessee, KHP will be partnering with the University of Tennessee History Department, WUOT Radio, and the East Tennessee Historical Society to research and publish a short booklet on the Fair and support other programming, including lectures, podcasts, and more.
Do you Have Photographs of the 1982 World’s Fair?
As part of the ongoing Knoxville Shoebox initiative, KHP is appealing to members of the public to share photographs, printed materials, and other ephemera to help fill in the many gaps in the photographic record of our city’s past, and create a new digital collection based on the World’s Fair.
If you have interesting old photographs from the World’s Fair we’d love to hear from you. You show us the photograph, we copy it and give the original back to you. Or you can email us high resolution scans if you have that capability. We will preserve and archive the images and make them available for researchers of the future, always crediting your contribution.
Here is just a short list of the priority images we are seeking:
Please contact Paul James at the Knoxville History Project at 865-337-7723 or paul@knoxhistoryproject.org. Learn more at knoxvillehistoryproject.org/knoxville-shoebox/
Welcome to Knoxville Chronicles, a podcast series produced by the Knoxville History Project highlighting some of the most interesting of the city’s old stories of the city that still have relevance today.
The pilot episode, The Printer’s Devil, written and narrated by Jack Neely, tells the story of Adolph Ochs, a kid who was scared of a graveyard while he learned the ropes of of newspaper publishing here in Knoxville as a Printer’s Devil. The lad went on to become the founder of a major American institution, a cultural leader who changed a whole profession, established a landmark, and introduced a new way of celebrating a holiday. The story connects Knoxville in post-Civil War Tennessee to booming, electric New York in the 20th century. Length: 18.38 mins.
Find more Podcasts and audio dialogues here.
If you would like to help fund more Podcasts, please contact Paul James, Director of Publishing & Development, at paul@knoxhistoryproject.org
For half a century, Dr. Charles Faulkner has used archeology combined with in-depth research to bring out some of the untold stories of Knoxville: of James White’s forgotten final home; of Blount Mansion’s complicated legacy; of the tragedy at Cavett Station; of architectural landmark Ramsey House, of several other sites of log cabins or potter’s shops, often finding surprises beneath our feet.
His wife, graphic artist Terry Faulkner, has worked wonders with the more modern history of Bearden, their longtime home, both in written research and installation of appealing stone markers noting the unique neighborhood’s best stories.
Working together in recent years, the Faulkners have added much to what we know of the once-formidable Union Fort Sanders, the site of the worst loss of life in Knoxville history; finding some of its secrets still lying beneath the houses and streets of an equally historic neighborhood, they’ve raised intriguing questions about the site.
KHP recognizes Charles and Terry upon their recent work, co-writing Rediscovering Fort Sanders: The American Civil War and Its Impact on Knoxville’s Cultural Landscape, published by UT Press.
WATCH THE SHORT TRIBUTE FILM HERE.
Thanks to everyone who supported us on this event. It’s not too late to contribute to our goal of $20,000. Please make a donation here.
Thank you to our sponsors for underwriting the costs of this event:
Knoxville Archeological Sponsors
Bob and Lynne Davis
Merikay Waldvogel and Jerry Ledbetter
Bearden History Sponsors
Mary English
Sherri Lee
Cindy Spangler
KNOXVILLE LEGENDS: EXPLORING THE CITY’S COUNTRY MUSIC HERITAGE
New Downtown Audio Tour Now Available
Experience Knoxville in a new way on a walking tour that looks at the city’s deep and dynamic heritage in the development of American country music.
Discover new stories about the talented musicians and songwriters who were born here or used the city as a springboard to fame, in Nashville and beyond. Some just came to play, while others left their mark in memorable ways. We’ll meet the truly famous, like Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, and Elvis Presley, but also the more obscure performers and songwriters such as Charlie Oaks and Arthur Q. Smith.
Along the way, we’ll show you the spots where:
• The little-known teenage singer Dolly Parton “fell in love with her audience”
• Hank Williams spent his final evening
• The RCA discovered a regional phenomenon known as Elvis Presley
• Arthur Q. Smith sold songs to pay for his bar bill
• The brand-new bluegrass duo Flatt & Scruggs recorded their first records
Plus, we’ll weave in interesting facts and tales from Knoxville’s history and culture along the way, too.
The tour is the perfect primer to Knoxville’s Country Music roots. Jack Neely, a longtime newspaper journalist and author of more than 10 books on Knoxville’s lesser-known history is your guide on this hour-long walk.
Learn more at https://voicemap.me/tour/knoxville-tennessee/knoxville-legends-exploring-the-city-s-country-music-heritage
Cost is $5.99 to downtown the tour and then you can take it as many times as you like. The Voicemap app must be downloaded to enjoy the tour.
If you share our love of Knoxville history and wish to help fund current and future efforts to educate and inspire residents and visitors to understand and enjoy the city’s sense of culture, we invite you to support our work.
Simple Ways to support KHP’s mission:
Become a Friend of KHP: Donate $50 or more per year and receive our monthly exclusive email stories written by Jack Neely through the Scruffy Citizen. Donate $100 or more per year and receive a copy of our annual printed story collection in the fall. Its easy to donate online here.
Sponsor a Zoom Talk: Donate $100 and help underwrite the cost of our free programming during the pandemic and beyond. We’ll feature your name or your business on promotions and on a special slide at the beginning and end of the presentation.
Purchase Books or Merchandise: All sales help fund KHP’s work. You can find all of our publications, postcards, playing cards, and special bundles in our online shop.
For more information, please visit our KHP Contributions page or contact Paul James, Director of Publishing & Development at paul@knoxhistoryproject.org or call the KHP office at 865-337-7723.
Donations may be mailed to: Knoxville History Project, 516 West Vine Avenue, #8, Knoxville TN 37902.
In collaboration with Beck Cultural Exchange Center, KHP is proud to announce the release of a new children’s book based on the unpublished work of African American teacher and artist Ruth Cobb Brice.
This 48-page, full-color trade paperback book is now available only from KHP and Beck Cultural Exchange Center. Price is $9.99 plus tax.
The book features a foreword by Beck executive director Rev. Reneé Kesler with biographical contributions by Jack Neely.
Find a copy in our online shop.
WEEKLY ZOOMS CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE PANDEMIC
Since May 2020, KHP has been engaging the general public through educational weekly talks on Zoom. Primarily hosted by Jack Neely, we’ve also welcomed numerous guest presenters, including Becky Hancock, Laura Still, Paul Brown, Rev. Renee Kesler, and our fellow historians over at Blount Mansion.
The response has been overwhelmingly encouraging. By the end of 2020, more than 1,500 viewers had joined us directly, and many more have been watching our recorded versions here.
KHP plans to continue to offer these engaging social activities where folks can listen, watch, and also participate in virtual discussions and Q&As.
Heklp fund these free programs by sponsoring a talk. Please call Paul James at 865-337-7723 or email paul@knoxhistoryproject.org us if you would like to become a sponsor.
Register for our talks on the Events page.
What our viewers are saying:
“I’ve lived in Knoxville for 7-1/2 years, and KHP makes me feel more Knoxvillian every week.” – Deanne Charlton
“Bob and I want to thank you for the tremendous job you have done to continue to promote the history of Knoxville during this COVID-19 pandemic. Jack, Paul and Nicole have spent many hours providing informative programs weekly over Zoom to keep us connected as our monthly in person meetings have changed into weekly Zoom meetings. You don’t know how much we look forward to and appreciate these informative programs while sheltering in place. Please keep up the excellent work you are doing. Thanks again!” – Linda Wimbrow
“Throughout this summer, and the limitations imposed by COVID-19, my wife Diane Fox and I have greatly enjoyed attending the Knoxville History Project’s series of Zoom presentations. History is storytelling, and when told well, connects our present to the past in ways that inform, enlighten and enrich. Each week offers new, beautifully illustrated talks covering a range of topics, from architecture and art, the history of the suffragettes to our cultural diversity. We are so fortunate have KHP enrich our lives.” – Beauvais Lyons
“Thank you for the wonderful online lectures and slides that you are providing during this Civid-19 chapter of our lives in Knoxville and around the world. Each week the lectures have offered a refreshing opportunity to be transported to other times to feel our roots, to gain greater insights about how we got here, and hopefully move forward positively by learning from the past. It is not only a weekly escape from the news of our times, but also an anchor that holds us steady in knowing we will move past this adversity and thrive once again, just like those who came before us. I look forward to this shared online experience each week, and come away inspired and comforted.” – Sue Renfro
“I woke up this morning thinking about what I have learned through the Knoxville History Project’s Zoom talks about Knoxville’s African American community. When I was a kid in Knoxville in the 40’s/50’s/60’s Knoxville was segregated, as were my all-white schools. The only way I ever saw any Black persons was going to a downtown parade where Austin High School band participated, or sometimes there were Smithwood African-Americans on the “This section reserved for colored people” back seat of the Knoxville Transit Lines. Through the Knoxville History Project I have learned there were African American persons on Knoxville City Council in the late 1800’s, and about the African American churches in the community, about an African American business man-developer, about the African American schools in town, and the Black communities near the brick factory and elsewhere. And I have learned about African American musicians who either lived in Knoxville or performed there. The Knoxville History Project is a vital factor in realizing that Black lives mattered in Knoxville, even through many of us living there were not aware of who our fellow residents and the contributions they made to our lives.” – Walter Parry
Celebrate the centennial of the passing of the 19th Amendment and the history of woman’s suffrage in Knoxville through stories and a walking tour brought to you by the Knoxville History Project. Quick Links:
Woman’s Suffrage Downtown Walking Tour
Anderson, Harris & Wade: Suffrage’s Forgotten Local Champions
KHP’s first community history: Historic Bearden: The 200-Year Story of Knoxville’s Fourth Creek Valley, a rich and colorful book is now available on our online store and at several local retailers including Union Ave Books (downtown), and throughout the Bearden area at Bennett Gallery, Long’s Drug Store, Calloways Lamp & Shade, Mayo’s, and Bobby Todd Antiques.
This 200-page, fully illustrated book has been researched and written by Jack Neely with the help of Paul James, editor and photo researcher.
Price: $24.95 plus tax
Please visit our Historic Bearden page for further details.
Special thanks to everyone who helped with this project including our sponsors, Phillip Lawson, Pilot Flying J, and The Bearden Village Council, and all the individual supporters who contributed to our Bearden Bundle campaign.
Join KPH during the pandemic “lockdown” for a weekly virtual talk and slideshow every Thursday at 6:00 pm. Recent topics have included:
Register for the weekly talk on our Events page and the zoom link will be automatically emailed to you.
Special thanks to the Arts Fund of East Tennessee Foundation and Humanities Tennessee for special funding during the pandemic which helps us conduct these programs.
The Knoxville History Project is seeking community support to fund research and production of a new engaging “Downtown Literary Guide” to increase awareness for the city’s rich literary heritage.
“A city’s literary history often forms a big part of a city’s public persona. In America as in much of the world, the cities that matter are the ones that have attracted authors to use them as settings. Dozens of major cities offer guidebooks to newcomers interested in exploring that heritage. In some cases, visitors may already be familiar with the author’s work, or, at least, have heard the author’s name. That in of itself can offer a point of access to an otherwise unfamiliar city.” – Jack Neely
Researched and published by the Knoxville History Project, using images, quotations, and brief bios, the Knoxville literary guide will offer a gateway to Knoxville’s literary heritage and to the city’s appeal. The guide will highlight works by important Knoxville authors, including James Agee, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Nikki Giovanni, Cormac McCarthy, George Washington Harris, David Madden, and others.
This signature project will be designed by the award-winning team at Robin Easter Design to complement KHP partner Knox Heritage’s highly popular “Historic Downtown Walking Tour” of historic buildings.
The format will be a tall 4.24” x 11” 28-page two-tone booklet with a print run of 10,000 booklets.
Learn more here: KHP Knoxville Literary Guide
Please contact Paul James at paul@knoxhistoryproject.org
Jack’s new book, six years in the making, beautifully written and tastefully designed by Robin Easter Design, is actually his longest book.
“The Old City’s history is a story of intersections. Near the spot where Jackson and Central cross, Knoxville’s rail-based economy boomed. Saloons and “resorts” (aka brothels) flourished while reformers fought poverty and plague. Immigrants built lasting legacies. Black businesses thrived. Music of all sorts-folk, jazz, country, rock ‘n’ roll- has always played and important role.”
Hardcover edition. 350 pages. Illustrated throughout. $39.99.
Now available to purchase through KHP’s Online Store or pick up a signed copy at several upcoming book-signing events where Jack will also be speaking. The first one will be on September 19th at 6:30pm at Maple Hall on Gay Street. Check our EVENTS page for all dates and times and other related programs.
This September, KHP received a grant to allow us to install what will be our 19th Downtown Art Wrap through a special Arts Builds Communities program awarded by the State of Tennessee and managed locally by the Arts and Cultural Alliance.
The new art wrap will be an abstract painting by Carl Sublett, one of the famous Knoxville Seven artists, whose work can be viewed at the Knoxville Museum of Art’s ongoing exhibition, HIGHER GROUND: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee. The new art wrap will be placed at the intersection of Henley Street and W. Church Avenue.
The grant requires KHP to raise matching funds on a 1:1 basis. If you would like to sponsor a new art wrap or contribute with others to make this happen, please call 865-337-7723 or email paul@knoxhistoryproject.org Thank you.
LONG TABLE DINNER TO BENEFIT KHP
The Knoxville History Project is thrilled to be chosen as the beneficiary organization for the 5th Long Table Dinner to be held in the Old City on Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 5:00 pm.
According to Molly King, owner of Molly Jo Events, and mastermind of this wonderful event, “The Long Table Dinner is an extraordinary collaboration of Chefs, Artisans, and Makers working together to raise money for local non-profits. Our ever-evolving collective of restaurants, bars, brewers, distillers, musicians, and artists produces one of Knoxville’s must-attend events in the heart of the Old City. This twice-yearly event is a fundraiser for a different non-profit on each occasion.”
Proceeds from the Long Table Dinner will provide a huge boost to KHP’s mission of researching and promoting the history and culture of Knoxville.
$140 per person. Tickets are available at Brownpapertickets.com
Sponsorship Opportunities
Gold Level Sponsor:
Table Sponsors:
100% of sponsorship donations go directly to KHP since event expenses come out of ticket sales. Learn more about sponsorship levels: Long Table Sponsorships
If you would like to become a sponsor of this event, or learn more about supporting the Knoxville History Project, please contact Paul James, Development Director at 865-337-7723 or email at paul@knoxhistoryproject.org.
Read about KHP’s “Latest News and Community Impacts – Summer 2019: KHP Latest News & Community Impact
NEW!!! – HISTORIC KNOXVILLE:
The Curious Visitor’s Guide to its Stories and Places
The Knoxville History Project’s new book, written by Jack Neely, is a comprehensive and engaging 200-page guide for both visitors and residents offers a wide-ranging guided tour to scores of places and institutions relevant to the city’s little know but endlessly fascinating history.
Knoxville will just come alive after you’ve read this book and explored some fascinating places!
Available from KHP and local book shops and retailers. Price: 24.95
Learn more on the HISTORIC KNOXVILLE GUIDE page.
Expanding every month, Downtown Art Wraps engage the public to discover the city’s rich artistic heritage by showcasing some of the important artwork made by Knoxville artists from the past. View the wraps on an interactive map and learn more on our Downtown Art Wraps page.
Most of us have a shoe box filled with old photos, clippings, and assorted memorabilia from our own lives and families.
You might have something in there that has distinct local importance and would also enhance KHP’s ability to tell a more comprehensive story of this special town. Old family photos might show interesting scenes or buildings. Posters and photos from musical shows here in Knoxville also have fascinating stories to tell, especially when coupled with others.
Learn how you can help KHP and enrich local history on our Knoxville Shoe Box page.
Kicking things off we have new information about Emory Place as well as the new Lib Cooper Knoxville Digital Postcard Collection to share!
The Knoxville History Project is proud to partner with author and historian, Laura Still, and Knoxville Walking Tours to expand the offerings of quality, educational, and fun historical tours around Knoxville.
To help you understand what Laura brings to your historical experience and what inspired her to move into this field, we sat down with Laura to find out what inspired these talks and what you might expect by joining her on a tour.
Read the full Q & A with Laura here.
A portion of the proceeds from all downtown tours supports the Knoxville History Project.
A NEW PUBLICATION FOR LATE 2019: HISTORIC BEARDEN
Bearden is one of Knoxville’s oldest and best-known communities, with an economically and racially diverse background and deep roots in the 19th century. However, to date, except for some short monographs and personal memoirs, it has never been the subject of a comprehensive history, description, or overview in book form.
A new full-color historical guidebook, to be written by Jack Neely, and designed by the awarding winning team at Robin Easter Design, will be released towards the end of 2019 by the Knoxville History Project.
For more information on this project please click here for KHP’s Historic Bearden book page which also contains links to our community history and oral history pages.
MAKING KHP PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC
Thanks to generous funding from the Friends of the Knox County Public Library, KHP has been able to make a number of its publications available to readers through the library system. Special hardbound copies of the following titles are now available to check out at the Downtown Lawson McGhee Library and branch libraries:
HISTORIC KNOXVILLE PLAYING CARDS
KHP is proud to showcase a new set of illustrated playing cards designed by the talented Tara Guin.
Playing with this sumptuous set will inspire you to learn a thing or two about some truly interesting, creative, successful, and altogether quirky and unforgettable characters from Knoxville’s past featured on the face cards. Meet the face cards on our Historic Knoxville Playing Cards page.
2019 WORK PLAN
For an overview of KHP’s core programs and priority projects in 2019 click here.
KNOXVILLE’S NATIONAL CEMETERY: A SHORT HISTORY
For Memorial Day Weekend 2018, KHP completed the first-ever published history of Knoxville’s National Cemetery.
A solemn destination, National Cemetery which lies adjacent to Old Gray Cemetery off Broadway, is the resting places of more than 9,000 American soldiers from every major war in the last 155 years and, in some cases, their close families. It’s so well kept, white stones in green grass, it doesn’t look very old, but it may be Knoxville’s best-preserved artifact of the Civil War. It was founded in September, 1863, when the Union-held city was anticipating a Confederate siege.
The Union monument, one of the largest in the South outside of battlefield memorial parks, has an extraordinary story behind it– about why it looks very different in old photographs. It also holds the simple grave of an especially well-known general who’s memorialized much more extravagantly elsewhere in town.
Learn more about the National Cemetery and other noteworthy cemeteries on our Historic Cemeteries page through the Knoxville History Portal.
If you want to hear an unusual take on Knoxville’s history and culture, try Walk with Me.
This creation of musician, filmmaker, and former television host Bob Deck, through his company, Wide Lens, along with singer/songwriter/poet R.B. Morris. The newest ones, about the Tennessee and Bijou Theatres, the Knoxville Museum of Art, St. John’s Episcopal Church, and the Jig & Reel– all venues used in the recent Big Ears festival– include some historical context provided by the Knoxville History Project. It’s an interesting idea, and we hope to participate in more projects like it in the future. Go to WALK WITH ME