Amythyst Kiah © Birthplace of Country Music; photographer: Billie Wheeler

Amythyst Kiah is an alumni of the East Tennessee State University Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies program and contributed to the content development for the Birthplace of Country Music Museum’s permanent exhibits. She is a roots, old-time, and alt-rock musician whose work as a songwriter and as a performer with Our Native Daughters explores the history of this music and her place in it as a woman of color.

Courtesy of Bob Cox

The Bowman Sisters – Jennie (left) and Pauline (right) – recorded at the 1928 Johnson City Sessions. They also traveled and performed with their father Fiddlin’ Charlie Bowman in the 1930s on the Loews vaudeville circuit.

Courtesy of Cathy Fink; photo credit: Irene Young

Old-time, bluegrass, and folk musicians Cathy Fink (left) and Marcy Marxer (right) have been involved with almost every aspect of the music industry over their 35 years of performing.

Virginia Folklife Program/Virginia Humanities; photographer: Pat Jarrett

Dr. Dena Jennings grows her own gourds for the banjos she makes. She also educates others about the instrument’s history and hosts the Affrolachian On-Time Music Gathering.

From the Mike Seeger Collection (Series Addition of June 2011: Photographs ca. 1950—2000), #20009, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Elizabeth “Libba” Cotten played blues, ragtime, and original compositions on guitar and banjo. She composed “Freight Train,” her best known song, at the age of 12

From the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records, #20001, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Elsie McWilliams was the first woman to make a career as a country music songwriter, collaborating with her brother-in-law Jimmie Rodgers to write over 20 songs for or with him.

From the Mike Seeger Collection (Series Addition of June 2011: Photographs ca. 1950—2000), #20009, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Several iconic women in old-time music – Lily May Ledford of the Coon Creek Girls, Janette Carter, Ramona Jones, Ola Belle Reed, Rose Maddox, and Elizabeth Cotten (sitting) – photographed in the 1980s.

From the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project Collection, 1965—1989, #20004, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

In the late 1930s, Lily May Ledford helped to form an all-girl group called The Coon Creek Girls. The Coon Creek Girls’ rendition of “Banjo Pickin’ Girl” has long been an anthem for female old-time artists.

© Birthplace of Country Music; photographer: Anna Mincey

Martha Spencer is a singer-songwriter, mountain musician and dancer from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She grew up in the musical Spencer family and learned to play several instruments (guitar, fiddle, banjo, bass, dulcimer, mandolin) and flatfoot/clog at a young age. She performs with several roots music projects

© Birthplace of Country Music; photographer: Billie Wheeler

Nora Brown performing at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion music festival in Bristol, TN/VA in 2021

Courtesy of Cathy Fink

Ola Belle Reed played banjo and guitar and sang, performing in various family bands for dances, parties, and concerts. She embodied the “high lonesome sound” usually connected with Bill Monroe’s music, and some of her original songs included “I’ve Endured,” “Tear Down the Fences,” and “Only the Leading Role Will Do.”

© Birthplace of Country Music

Rhiannon Giddens performing as part of The Carolina Chocolate Drops with her bandmates Justin Robinson (L) and Dom Flemons (R) at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion music festival in 2006.

© Birthplace of Country Music; photographer: Ashli Linkous

Roni Stoneman helped the Birthplace of Country Music mark the 95th anniversary of the 1927 Bristol Sessions by performing at Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time show in July 2022.

Red Men Band (RMB) baseball team, Orme, Marion County, c. 1907-1912

This baseball team is believed to have organized out of the Yamassa Tribe No. 67 of the Red Men Society, which was established in Orme in 1906.

Gift of Mary Katherine Decker Jones, in memory of Edith M. Horton Henry, East Tennessee Historical Society Collection | 2011.42

Gates to Bill Meyer Stadium/Neal Ridley Field, Opening Day, 1998

Courtesy of the Ridley Collection, East Tennessee History Center

Baseball game at Bill Meyer Stadium, Knoxville, 1970s

Courtesy of the Ridley Collection, East Tennessee History Center

Muskegon Lassies players (including Knoxvillian Doris “Sammye” Sams, far left), All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1947

Courtesy of the Doris Sams Scrapbook, Knoxville Smokies Collection

Farragut High School baseball game, John G. Nessler, photograph, 1914

Courtesy of the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, Knox County Public Library

Virgin Country (also known as Pioneers Coming Over the Mountains to Tennessee) Cat. 01-12A 30 x 22 in. Scene 1770 / Painted 1962 In a the late 1700s, settlers from North Carolina pushed through Indian Gap in the Smoky Mountains; on foot and horseback, they sought verdant farmland in the eastern valley of what would become the state of Tennessee. Briscoe referred to the settlers as craftsmen, preachers, farmers, and teachers. Sometimes they followed a stream edged with laurel and rhododendron, mountain ferns and evergreens. They also followed the heroic dream of freedom. Mount LeConte guarded what Briscoe called the “solitude of vast untouched lands.

Ramsey House (for the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities) Cat. 02-65B ​20 x 16 in. Scene 1797 / Painted 1977 Gentlemen converse on the grounds of Swan Pond on a Sunday afternoon in 1797. The homeowner was Colonel Francis Alexander Ramsey, the designer Thomas Hope. It was the childhood home of the East Tennessee Historical Society’s founder J.G.M. Ramsey. Briscoe painted this notable Knoxville landmark for the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities. The painting was later acquired at an auction by William B. Walkup, then president of Home Federal Bank.

Cades Cove in Pioneer Days Cat. 03-26A 30 x 22 in. Scene 1810 / Painted 1960  Nestled between mountain peaks, Cades Cove is a location of great natural beauty, one of the most scenic in East Tennessee. The first white settlers, with names such as Oliver, Tipton, Gregory, and Shields, came into Cades Cove in the early 1800s, where they built log cabins and barns, tended gardens, and raised livestock. Cades Cove became part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was dedicated in 1940. Today, descendants of the original settlers still gather for family reunions and are among the millions who visit the cove each year

East Tennessee Female Institute Cat. 04-5B ​20×16 in. Scene 1828 / Painted 1960  In 1828, influential citizens supported the building of the Knoxville Female Academy on the present corner of Main and Henley, now the site of Church Street United Methodist Church. Following occupation by Union troops during the Civil War, the academy stood abandoned until 1881, when it reopened as the East Tennessee Female Institute. The original building was razed in 1889. Another building replaced it. The Institute closed around 1900, and the University of Tennessee Law School took over the location for a time.

William Park Home, c. 1840—Built 1818 Cat. 05-57B 16 x 20 in. Scene 1840 / Painted 1976 Thomas Hope designed several fine Knoxville homes during the 1800s. In 1818, merchant William Park commissioned him to build this house at Cumberland and Gay. The house passed to the Sneeds, who vacated during the Civil War when Union generals quartered there, including Burnside, Grant, Sherman, Thomas, and Sheridan. After the war, the Sneeds regained the house and then sold it to the Temples, who held it until it was demolished in 1923.