Past Exhibits

  • From Erzgebirge, Germany, to Wartburg, Tennessee
    December 1, 2023 - 4:00am to January 10, 2024 - 6:00pm
    A Family's Christmas Tradition

    Charles Gottlieb Ficke/Fickey and wife Ernestine Augusta Auerswald, through whom the crèche (above) and Christmas carousel (right) descended, immigrated to the United States from the Saxony region of Germany in 1883. Accompanying them were their sons Ernest, 15, and Theodore, 10.

    An...

  • November 19, 2022 - 4:00am to September 3, 2023 - 5:00pm

    Our relationship to moving images is constantly evolving. Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, for example, our use of–and reliance on–streaming services to access Hollywood blockbusters not only changed how we watch movies but also disrupted traditional models for financing and distributing such productions.

    How did our relationship with...

  • Free Admission into Museum with Donation of Food or Personal Hygiene Item
    November 5, 2022 - 5:00am to January 17, 2023 - 11:00am

    A special exhibit at the Museum of East Tennessee History through January 17 will remember the legendary life and legacy of Waymon Earl Terrell (1950-2015). Earl was well known to the Powell community, where he was regularly seen riding his bicycle and pulling a cart along the busy thoroughfares of Clinton Highway and Emory Road, his dogs often...

  • The 40th Anniversary of the 1982 World's Fair
    March 19, 2022 - 5:00am to October 9, 2022 - 12:00pm

    “We live our dreams. We make them come true. Our ideas and energies combine in a dynamic force–the kind of force that made the developments and breakthroughs and discoveries in this building possible.”

    –President Ronald Reagan, dedication of the US Pavilion, 1982 World’s Fair, Knoxville, Tennessee

     ...

  • East Tennessee Remembers 9/11
    September 1, 2022 - 4:00am to September 30, 2022 - 12:00pm

    Following the events of September 11, 2001, East Tennesseans contributed more than $940,000 to purchase and equip a 95-foot tower ladder truck for Harlem-based Ladder Company 14, helping the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) replenish the largest vehicles in the city's firefighting fleet. The so-called “Freedom Engine,” built by Seagrave...

  • Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
    April 21, 2022 - 3:00pm

    The East Tennessee Historical Society & Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law with presenting sponsors KaTom Restaurant Supply, Ihop, & The Honorable Bill and Chrissy Haslam invite you to attend A Historic Evening with Jon Meacham

    Destiny and Power: The American...
  • April 23, 2021 - 4:00am to January 30, 2022 - 12:00pm

    “There are two ways of understanding portraiture–either as history or as fiction.”–Charles Baudelaire, 1846

    Portraits were the “social media posts” of the American colonial and antebellum periods. 

    Today, social media allows users to not only visually document and share life’s moments but also curate how...

  • February 14, 2020 - 4:00am to February 28, 2021 - 12:00pm
    Introduction

    Knoxville occupies a unique place in the American South. Following the Civil War, residents felt it was one of the few racially tolerant cities in the region. Unlike most cities in the South, African Americans in Knoxville could vote, hold public office, serve as police officers, and sit on juries. Despite this, racial tensions...