When local quilters learned that the 2014 Medal of Honor Convention would meet in Knoxville, their first thought was, “wouldn’t it be great to meet these guys---and give them a quilt!” Over the 20 months leading up to the convention, quilters across East Tennessee created individual quilts for each living recipient and several Gold Star...
Lectures
Love history and want to learn more? Explore a variety of historical topics as authors, scholars, and local historians present the latest research and books, as well as new looks at old subjects. Lectures are open to the public and are free of charge unless otherwise stated.
Previous Lectures
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@ The East Tennessee History CenterMarch 25, 2015 - 8:00am to March 26, 2015 - 8:45am
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@ The East Tennessee History CenterMarch 19, 2015 - 2:30pm
There is a reason that Veterans Day Parades halt for a moment of silence at precisely 11 a.m. It was at 11 a.m. on the 11th of November 1918, that the deadliest and most destructive war in history, to that point, ended. More than 130,000 Tennesseans served in the Great War, some 40,000 of them from East Tennessee. Knoxville and Knox County...
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@ The East Tennessee History CenterFebruary 4, 2015 - 7:00am to February 5, 2015 - 7:45am
Scottish Highland historian and genealogist Graeme Mackenzie will share from his particular insight into the Highland Clans, past and present. Mackenzie is the author of Genealogy in the Gaidhealtachd: Clan and Family History in the Highlands of Scotland and chair of the Association of Highland Clans and Societies. He has lectured...
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@ The East Tennessee History CenterNovember 12, 2014 - 7:00am to November 13, 2014 - 7:45am
What were the geological forces that shaped East Tennessee into our beautiful land of mountains and valleys? Don Byerly will introduce us to Tennessee’s “deep history,” the billion years over which our land has slowly evolved to form the mountains and valleys we enjoy today. He compares the study of Earth history to that of human history in...
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@ The East Tennessee History CenterOctober 29, 2014 - 8:00am to October 30, 2014 - 8:45am
Louisa Trott is project coordinator for the Tennessee Newspaper Digitization Project, a partnership between the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee State Library and Archives to digitize a series of historic newspapers in Tennessee and to make these records publicly accessible online. The first phase concentrated on the Civil War and...
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@ The East Tennessee History CenterOctober 22, 2014 - 7:00am to October 23, 2014 - 7:45am
Primarily rooted in Southern Appalachia nearly a century ago, the practice of “taking up the serpent” is most often found in fiercely independent churches in the more mountainous areas. Though the practice has long been hotly debated, it wasn’t until 1947, spurred by the death of five East Tennesseans, that the state of Tennessee first outlawed...
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@ The East Tennessee History CenterOctober 9, 2014 - 2:00pm to October 10, 2014 - 1:45pm
Appalachian author Sharyn McCrumb will introduce us to her newest book, a hauntingly beautiful Christmas story of spirits, memories, and angels unaware. The book is a welcome revisit with some of her most beloved characters who understand all too well that there is more to this world than the eye can see, especially at Christmastime. Well...
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@ The Bijou TheatreOctober 7, 2014 - 7:00am to October 8, 2014 - 7:45am
Winston Churchill’s roots were British and American. He was uniquely placed to stand up for the shared values of freedom and liberty so nearly lost in those dark days of 1940. Churchill’s beautiful and captivating mother, Jennie Jerome, born in Brooklyn in 1854, was a New Yorker through and through. She met Lord Randolph Spencer Churchill in a...
