Past Exhibits

  • August 1, 2016 - 4:00am to August 7, 2016 - 12:00pm

    The East Tennessee Historical Society is pleased to partner with East Tennessee PBS and the Beck Cultural Exchange Center to commemorate the 8th of August as the date traditionally observed as the day on which Andrew Johnson freed his slaves. Although President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect January 1, 1863, it did not apply to...

  • Lloyd Branson, 1853-1925
    November 7, 2015 - 5:00am to March 20, 2016 - 1:00pm

    Native genius. Boy artist. These and other descriptors were often applied to Lloyd Branson, who grew from a precocious sketcher on his family’s East Tennessee farm to an accomplished artist best known for portraits of Southern politicians and depictions of early Tennessee history. For the first time, Branson is the subject...

  • Works from Life and Travels
    January 25, 2016 - 4:00am to March 2, 2016 - 11:00am

    Edward S. Albers, Jr. was born August 2, 1925 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is widely known as “Bud.” Growing up, he enjoyed his father’s workshop tools and his drawing board, triangles, T-square, and pencils to freehand drawing trains and planes. Encouraged by an excellent grammar school teacher Mary Dowell, he studied the techniques of...

  • Manufacturing Milestones
    October 4, 2014 - 4:00am to April 4, 2015 - 12:00pm

     

    Today’s Tennesseans, while not totally abandoning their agricultural heritage, have moved into an age of advanced technology and global competition symbolized by electronics, chemical production, and automobile manufacturing. Tennesseans may wear cowboy hats and listen to the Grand Ole Opry, but at work they...

  • Voices from Children's Literature
    June 16, 2014 - 4:00am to September 14, 2014 - 12:00pm
    Walk through the pages of your favorite storybook in this groundbreaking exhibit on Appalachian children's literature.

    Sporting life-size characters from Appalachian children's books, this exhibit looks at the seminal titles from the late 1800s through the modern story of Appalachia. You'll feel like you're walking through the pages...

  • East Tennessee Baskets, 1880-1940
    March 17, 2014 - 5:00am to June 1, 2014 - 11:00am

    Imagine doing away with shopping bags, plastic buckets, and manufactured storage tubs of today and depending instead upon baskets. You would quickly recognize the essential role that these hand-woven containers of wood played in bygone days. Baskets were some of the most functional and creative possessions in everyday life.

    During the...

  • The First 20 Years of Television in East Tennessee
    November 2, 2013 - 6:00am to February 23, 2014 - 12:00pm

    In celebration of the 60th Anniversary of television going live across East Tennessee's air waves, visit the Museum of East Tennessee History for a chance to re-live the programs and personalities from the first 20 years of television.

  • Knoxville's 1913 National Conservation Exposition
    October 12, 2013 - 7:00am to October 13, 2013 - 7:00am

    Modern. Progressive. Knoxvillians at the turn of the twentieth century often used similar words to describe their hometown, a city short of 40,000 residents but long on the dream of outpacing other great Southern cities, such as Atlanta.

    Knoxville’s internal vision and drive, however, did not match outsiders’ estimation of the...