- University of Tennessee Health Science Center
- Founded in 1911, the UT Health Science Center includes the Colleges of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy; the School of Biomedical Engineering... Continue Reading »
- University of Tennessee Medical Center at Knoxville
- Fifty-four years after the city-owned and -operated Knoxville General Hospital opened in 1902, it was replaced by the University of Tennessee Memorial Research Center and Hospital. A number of forces ... Continue Reading »
- University of the South
- In 1857, when it was learned that the dioceses of the Episcopal Church planned to establish an educational center, citizens of Franklin County made common cause with the Sewanee Mining Company to offe... Continue Reading »
- Van Buren County
- Van Buren County encompasses 274 square miles straddling the Cumberland Plateau and the eastern Highland Rim. The western 30 percent of the county stands 960 feet above sea level; its limestone outcro... Continue Reading »
- Van Vechten Gallery of Fisk University
- In 1888 an enterprising student at Fisk University petitioned his fellow senior classmates to join with the fledgling Fisk Alumni Association (organized in 1884) to raise funds for a new multipurpose ... Continue Reading »
- Vance, James I.
- James I. Vance, longtime pastor of Nashville's historic First Presbyterian Church, the largest Presbyterian Church in the South in 1914, was voted one of the nation's twenty-five leading pul... Continue Reading »
- Vanderbilt University
- Vanderbilt University in Nashville owes its inception to the vision of a great university dreamed by the leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the 1850s. Efforts to realize the dream we... Continue Reading »
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- One of the nation's premier academic health centers, Vanderbilt University Medical Center traces its lineage to the University of Nashville and to Shelby Medical College. The latter institution, ... Continue Reading »
- Vaughan, James D.
- James D. Vaughan, “the father of southern gospel music,” was born on December 14, 1864 in Giles County, Tennessee. Vaughan grew up in Middle Tennessee surrounded by the sounds of gospel mu... Continue Reading »
- Vaught, Nathan
- Called the "Master Builder of Maury County," Nathan Vaught is credited with the construction of many of the most imposing antebellum homes in southern Middle Tennessee. Vaught was born in Sh... Continue Reading »
- Velazquez, Loreta Janeta
- Confederate soldier and spy Loreta Janeta Velazquez was born in Cuba, raised in New Orleans, and lived in Memphis at various times during the Civil War. As a young girl Velazquez developed an admirati... Continue Reading »
- Vernacular Domestic Architecture
- The majority of Tennessee residences were neither designed nor built by architects or master craftsmen. Nor were they designed with one particular architectural style in mind. They do, however, fall u... Continue Reading »
- Vernacular Log Type Houses
- The log house is perhaps the most enduring architectural icon associated with Tennessee. Scholars continue to debate how the knowledge of log construction was diffused through the cultural patterns of... Continue Reading »
- Vernacular Religious Music
- A wide variety of terms have been used to describe American vernacular religious music: religious ballads, hymns, spiritual songs, folk hymns, revival religious songs, gospel songs, folk tunes, and fu... Continue Reading »
- Vertrees, John J.
- Nashville attorney and vocal opponent of woman suffrage and prohibition, John J. Vertrees was born in Sumner County on June 16, 1850. He attended Cumberland University and read law with W. S. Monday b... Continue Reading »
- Virginia Bethel Moon
- Confederate spy and, later, Memphis philanthropist, Virginia Bethel Moon was a student at an Ohio girls' school when the Civil War began. After initial resistance, school officials finally acquie... Continue Reading »
- Vogel, Matthew Haynes
- Olympic medal-winning swimmer from the University of Tennessee, Matt Vogel was born June 3, 1957, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As a high school senior swimming for the Huntingdon YMCA in Indiana, Vogel won... Continue Reading »
- Wagoner, Porter
- Country music icon Porter Wagoner defined the genre’s image during the 1960s and 1970s with his blonde pompadour, dazzling stage wear, and down-home friendly manner. But his stage persona someti... Continue Reading »
- Walden Hospital
- Before Dr. Emma Rochelle Wheeler opened Walden Hospital in Chattanooga in 1915, African Americans who required medical care were hospitalized in the basements of existing majority hospitals such as Er... Continue Reading »
- Walden Ridge and Sequatchie Valley
- Sequatchie Valley is a long, arrow-straight scenic slash into eastern North America's Appalachian Plateau that divides the southern half of its Tennessee portion into unequal parts. The valley ex... Continue Reading »
- Waldo Cohn
- Waldo Cohn, prominent nuclear scientist, member of the Manhattan project, biochemist, and founder and first conductor of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra, the state's oldest continuing symphony, ... Continue Reading »
- Walker, Joseph E.
- Joseph E. Walker, noted physician, banker, businessman, civic and religious leader in Memphis, was born in the cotton fields near Tillman, Mississippi, in 1880 and rose to become one of the most succe... Continue Reading »
- Walker, Orton Caswell
- Orton Caswell "Cas" Walker was one of the most flamboyant politicians in mid-twentieth century Knoxville as well as a major force in promoting country music in East Tennessee. Born in Sevier... Continue Reading »
- Walker, Thomas
- Thomas Walker, a colonial Virginian, significantly marked Tennessee through his discovery and naming of the Cumberland River in 1750 and his establishment of the North Carolina-Virginia western line i... Continue Reading »
- Walker, William
- William Walker was a leading filibuster in Latin America in the 1850s. He was born May 8, 1824, in Nashville and died in 1860 before a firing squad in Central America. His strange, brief career earned... Continue Reading »
- Walker-Meador, Jo
- Jo Walker-Meador, the first executive director of the Country Music Association, was born Josephine Denning in Orlinda. One of ten children, her early ambition was to become a girls' basketball c... Continue Reading »
- Walking Horse National Celebration
- This annual summer event in Shelbyville, Tennessee, is one of the largest horse shows in the world. Its physical accommodations, including 1,650 stalls for housing horses, establish it as the largest ... Continue Reading »
- Wallace Jr., Perry E.
- Perry Wallace, Southeastern Conference (SEC) basketball trailblazer, was born in February 1948 in Nashville to Perry E. and Hattie Haynes Wallace. The youngest of six children, he received his primary... Continue Reading »
- Wallace University School
- Nashville's Wallace University School was established in 1886 through the leadership of A. G. Adams, J. B. O'Bryan, and R. B. Throne. Desiring to establish a boys' school that emphasize... Continue Reading »
- Wallace, Campbell
- East Tennessee businessman and railroad president Campbell Wallace was a native of Sevier County and grew up in Maryville, where he attended Anderson Seminary. At age fourteen he moved to Knoxville, w... Continue Reading »
- Walton Road
- The Walton Road played a major part in the settlement of the area between the Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland River. Passing through what are today Roane, Cumberland, Smith, and Putnam Counties,... Continue Reading »
- Walton, Jesse
- Jesse Walton, pioneer soldier and settler, was born in Virginia. By the outbreak of the American Revolution, Walton was living in Surry County, North Carolina, along the Virginia border north of Winst... Continue Reading »
- Waltrip, Darrell
- Winston Cup Champion and Franklin, Tennessee, resident Darrell Waltrip was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, on February 5, 1947. In the early 1980s Waltrip was one of the new generation of drivers to take... Continue Reading »
- War of 1812
- When the United States declared war on Great Britain in June 1812, Tennesseans proudly proclaimed their readiness to preserve the honor and dignity of their country. It seemed unlikely that landlocked... Continue Reading »
- War of the Roses
- One of the most famous political events in Tennessee history was Tennessee's gubernatorial campaign of 1886, which pitted brothers Robert L. Taylor (Democrat) and Alfred A. Taylor (Republican) ag... Continue Reading »
- Ward, Nancy
- Last Beloved Woman of the Cherokees, Nancy Ward was born in 1738 at Chota and given the name Nanye-hi, which signified "One who goes about," a name taken from Nunne-hi, the legendary name of the Spiri... Continue Reading »
- Warf, John Howard
- J. Howard Warf, Tennessee commissioner of education (1963-71), was born in Lewis County in 1904 and rose to political power in the rough-and-tumble world of Democratic politics in the mid-twentieth ce... Continue Reading »
- Warner, Percy
- Nashville businessman and civic leader Percy Warner followed the lead of his father, James C. Warner, in capitalizing upon the New South exploitation of natural resources with his Warner Iron Corporat... Continue Reading »
- Warren Brothers Sash and Door Company
- By 1853 Jesse Warren (1814-1885) and his partner Joseph Moore (1821-1871) had established a millwork machine shop on Nashville's High Street. Four years later, the nearly fifty employees of Warre... Continue Reading »
- Warren County
- The Tennessee General Assembly established Warren County on November 26, 1807; it was the thirtieth county created in Tennessee. Settlers came to the area as early as 1800, and the new county was orig... Continue Reading »
- Warren, Robert Penn
- Acclaimed modern American writer Robert Penn Warren was at home in all the major genres--poetry, fiction, drama, and criticism--though poetry was his dominant mode. Warren was awarded three Pulitzer P... Continue Reading »
- Warriors Path State Park
- Located in Sullivan County, Warriors Path State Park contains 970 acres on both sides of the Fort Patrick Henry Lake, a 900-acre reservoir created by the Tennessee Valley Authority when it built Fort ... Continue Reading »
- Washington County
- Established by the North Carolina legislature in November 1777, Washington County came from western territory known as the Washington District. This first county included the whole territory within th... Continue Reading »
- Washington Manufacturing Company
- The origins of the Washington Manufacturing Company can be traced to 1812, when William Chester bought 260 acres near the mouth of Bumpass Cove in iron-rich Washington County and built a forge. He lat... Continue Reading »
- Washington, Joseph Edwin
- Joseph E. Washington, congressman, state legislator, tobacco planter, and a founder of the Tobacco Protective Association, was born November 10, 1851, at Wessyngton in Robertson County, the son of Geo... Continue Reading »
- Watauga Association
- By 1772 about seventy homesteads or farms had been established along the Watauga River in northeastern Tennessee (now Carter County). The area lay outside the boundaries of British colonial government... Continue Reading »
- Watkins Institute
- In 1880, eighty-six-year-old Samuel Watkins--soldier, brick mason, brick manufacturer, and businessman--died. Reputedly the richest man in Nashville, Watkins left one hundred thousand dollars and a lo... Continue Reading »
- Watterson, Henry
- Henry Watterson, journalist and proponent of the New South ideology, was among the last great voices in the era of personal journalism. Watterson played several journalistic roles in Tennessee before ... Continue Reading »
- Wayne County
- Wayne County is located on the extreme western side of the Highland Rim, with its northwest corner extending into the Tennessee River basin. It is made up of ridges and hollows and is on a plateau of ... Continue Reading »
- WDIA
- In 1948-49 white-owned WDIA in Memphis became the nation's first all-black radio station. Its owners, Bert Ferguson and John R. Pepper, hired Nat D. Williams, the first publicly identified black ... Continue Reading »
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