From Davy Crockett To Dolly Parton, The Museum Of East Tennessee History Covers It All

Whether You Are A Local Or Just Visiting, There Is Something For Everyone At This Terrific Museum

If you haven’t been to the East Tennessee History Museum in downtown Knoxville, it makes a great place to stop in with the family while you are out and about near Market Square or Gay Street.

Not a huge place, the museum is jam-packed with exhibits showcasing slices of life from our area— from Native Americans through the modern day including TVA and country music. The museum likes to tell the history using the people’s own stories so you will find hundreds of personal artifacts such as letters and clothing from everyday people used to illustrate the events of the time.

The kids will gravitate to the videos and touchscreens while adults will easily find something to pique their interest among the display cases packed with information.

The Museum of East Tennessee History is fun place to spend an hour or two learning more about the history of the place we call home and should definitely be on every Knoxvillian’s to do list.

Go before seeing a show at the Tennessee Theater, after church on Sunday, or as something to do when the kids are out of school. Combine it with lunch on Market Square or a trip up the Sunsphere and you have a great day out in downtown Knoxville!

Why We Like It

Right on Gay Street, the museum is easy to pop into for an hour or two when we are downtown. It makes a great AC break in the summer especially. It is free on Sundays and minimally priced otherwise.

The museum is so packed with artifacts and information, we can find something we haven’t seen before on every visit. But there are some things, like the Civil War video and the early 20th century streetscape, that are interesting enough to see again and again.

About The Museum

The museum is one part of the East Tennessee History Center, which also includes the Historical Society, the McClung Historical Collection, the Knox County Archives, and the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound. You can research your family’s history or any historical topic you want as well as attend free lectures, genealogy workshops, or education classes, all in the name of educating people about the history of East Tennessee. The museum itself is run by the Historical Society.

What You Will See

The museum really is packed with things to look at, so much so that it can be overwhelming to try and read everything. So don’t try and see it all, but rather stroll through the different eras stopping to read whatever sign board grabs you.

The main lobby is the first thing you come to and where you will pay admission (if needed), get a brochure, or take a gander thru the museum gift shop.

The museum itself is divided into two large spaces: permanent exhibits and temporary exhibits. From the lobby, you will enter a long hallway which passes the bathrooms and water fountain. The hallway ends at an early 20th century streetscape that is super cool and then you will see the entrances to the two exhibit spaces.

EAST TENNESSEE STREETSCAPE

The East Tennessee Streetscape exhibit is the first exhibit you come to from the lobby and it will immediately interest the kids. Two wall-sized photographs of the downtowns of Johnson City and Chattanooga in the early 20th century set the time frame, and the images are brought to life by the old Island Home streetcar and recreated drugstore/ soda fountain.

From the East Tennessee Streetscape exhibit, you can either go left and enter the permanent exhibit, Voices of the Land, or go right into the temporary exhibit.

TEMPORARY EXHIBITS

On our last visit, the temporary exhibit was about Mountain Dew and its conjunction with moonshine, hillbilly stereotypes, and Knoxville. The kids didn’t care as much about moonshine’s history but they did think the old Mountain Dew TV commercials over the years were pretty funny.

PERMANENT EXHIBIT- “VOICES OF THE LAND”

The whole exhibit aims to tell the story of the area through its people- using their letters and personal artifacts as the main instruments. That means there are a lot of individual glass cases and information boards that don’t always go sequentially.

If you are looking to follow in a set order, there isn’t really one, more of a move from section to section and study a few cases. It actually works well for kids who always seem to flit from thing to thing anyway.

The first thing you see when you enter the permanent exhibit is a few wooden chairs set up in front of 3 video screens. This is a 5 minute video giving a very brief but pretty overview of East Tennessee’s history and its culture. It is worth watching and the kids seem to enjoy it, even on repeat viewings.

From the introduction video, go left to start with Tennessee as a frontier.

Not much is covered about the Cherokee before the Europeans arrived, but there is a lot covering the dealings between Native Americans and the colonists.

You then progress through history, covering the Revolutionary War and statehood, the Trail of Tears, onto the Civil War, through Reconstruction and industrialization, Women’s Suffrage, the Civil Rights Movement, the creation of TVA, and creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which brings you to modern day. Whew. You will find a whole corner devoted to country music too.

It is a lot to look at and you could easily spend hours trying to read everything. So again, you might want to just walk slowly and stop to read a few information boards from each era.

Our Favorite Parts of the Museum

THE EAST TENNESSEE STREETSCAPE

The wall- sized photographs, the streetcar, the drugstore, and the old dentist’s office are all kid favorites. I just wish you could still go inside the streetcar as the kids always want to do that. But you can walk around the outside of the streetcar and everyone seems to find themselves perusing all the old bottles in the drugstore.

THE CIVIL WAR VIDEO IN THE LOG CABIN

Walk into the small log cabin to watch the excellent Civil War video. Instead of the pivotal battles or general tactics, this video focuses on the stories of the women back at home in East Tennessee, using period dressed actors to recreate the scene as the voice-over reads their actual letters.

Some of subjects were Confederate sympathizers and many were Union, but all wrote about the hardships and animosity between the people in their communities. It is a fascinating look at the daily life off the battlefield and how divided this area was.

THE “HILLBILLY STEREOTYPE” SECTION

The turn of the 2oth century and the advent of the car saw more people traveling around the United States, exploring previously unheralded corners. The advent of industrialization in cities left much of Appalachia untouched, leading to a wealth of magazine articles and popular fiction books about these strange mountain people and their backward ways.

Much of it was caricatures from people that didn’t actually know Appalachia at all, but their stereotypes have persisted about the speech and intellect of the “hillbillies.” I found the whole section, including a touchscreen, all super interesting as I didn’t know much about the origins of the term.

THE MUSIC CORNER

Pop a squat on the handy bench and watch the TV screen for rotating snippets of some of country’s most famous early stars singing their hits. Good for kids and tired adults. The surrounding glass cases and sign boards talk about the Bristol sessions and famous musicians from the area.

The Details

HOURS

• Open 9-4 Mon- Fri, 10- 4 on Sat, and 1-5 on Sun

• Closed on major holidays

• See website for current hours

ADMISSION

• $5 adults, $4 seniors, free kids 16 and under

• Everyone is free on Sundays but they do ask for donations

LOCATION

• 601 South Gay Street (across the street from the Tennessee Theater)

PARKING

• Easiest is the State Street Garage at 520 State Street. You can take the pedestrian bridge on its 3rd level to Gay St just a block away from the museum. The garage is $1 an hour for a max of $7 per day. It is free on weekdays after 6pm and on Sat/Sun (even gamedays!).

• Other options are street parking in Gay Street (good luck) and the Market Square parking garage (adjacent to Market Square and costing the same as the State Street garage). There are other flat lots and parking garages near to the museum but many of them are more expensive than the two I mention.

• You can also take the free Knoxville Trolley from wherever you are staying or parking, whether it is on UT’s campus or elsewhere in downtown.

• Read our handy blog about parking downtown to find all the available options. “Downtown Knoxville Parking- The Nitty Gritty”

NEARBY EATS

• There are so many restaurants to choose from as you are in the heart of downtown here. Just walk north on Gay Street and you will find plenty in just two blocks. Or head one block over to Market Square and pick from lots more choices. There is something for everyone, American, Irish, Mexican, sushi, subs, etc.

• Just some of our nearby favorites are Nama, Tomato Head, Downtown Grill and Brewery, Soccer Taco, and the French Market. And Cruze Farms’s excellent ice cream if you are just after a mid-afternoon treat.

• There are so many options in downtown Knoxville that we wrote a whole blog about our favorite places. “Where To Eat In Downtown Knoxville”

I hope you drop into the East Tennessee History Museum the next time you are in downtown Knoxville as it is well worth your time. Spend a few hours really getting your history on or pop in for a short refresher on some of the time periods that interest you. Or do as I do and challenge yourself to read a different board on each visit. It is a fantastic resource for the whole family to enjoy!

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