Past Exhibits

Celebrating a Life in Tennessee Art

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...
Bud Albers Art Recollections

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...
Made in Tennessee

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...
Reading Appalachia

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...
Woven of Wood

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...
Live! On Air! And In Your Living Room

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.
The First Fair of Its Kind

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...
Oak Ridge Secret City

Photographic History Exhibit

June 19, 2013 - 4:00am to August 7, 2013 - 11:00am

Purpose

This photographic exhibit tells the story of world-changing events, people and places in East Tennessee. The story begins in 1942 at a most unusual place first called the Kingston Demolition Range, then Clinton Engineer Works and finally known as Oak Ridge. Many of the exhibit photographs were taken by Ed Westcott, the official...