Encyclopedia

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 inspired at least four or five thousand young Tennesseans to cross the country. Many of them, rejected for service in the Mexican War because of the overabundance of volunteers, saw this as…

The year 1996 marked Tennessee's bicentennial. In honor of the occasion, the general assembly created Tennessee 200, Inc., and charged it with developing bicentennial programs. Local and traveling programs were developed to bring the celebration to all areas of the…

The Tennessee Academy of Science, founded in 1912, provides guidance for Tennesseans on trends and issues in the sciences. Scholars from many fields interact during an annual gathering that offers discipline-specific sessions as well as a general meeting and/or a…

Chartered by the general assembly in 1957, the Tennessee Agricultural Museum is located at Ellington Agricultural Center in south Nashville. The museum is housed in a former horse barn which was once part of the Brentwood Hall estate of financier…

Tennessee's first anti-narcotic law was largely the work of Dr. Lucius Polk Brown, Tennessee's food and drug commissioner. It went into effect on January 1, 1914, and reflected the moral reform atmosphere of the Progressive era. The law went further…

This Chattanooga attraction opened May 1, 1992, as the first major freshwater life center in the world dedicated to the understanding, conservation, and enjoyment of rivers. The exhibits guide visitors on a journey from the Tennessee River's source in the…

In 1965 the Tennessee House of Representatives created a Commission on the Performing Arts to document and study artistic facilities in the state. Two years later, the study recommended the establishment of the Tennessee Arts Commission. Since its creation, the…

Founded in 1881, the Tennessee Bar Association has been an influential voice in shaping Tennessee law and setting standards for legal instruction, lawyer discipline, and continuing education. Today over seven thousand of the state's twelve thousand lawyers belong to this…

The cable television industry in Tennessee, represented by several different networks, has increased the visibility of the state and positioned it as a culturally relevant and important part of the American media landscape. These networks have often focused on values…

The Tennessee Centennial Exposition, held in Nashville in 1897 to celebrate Tennessee's one-hundredth anniversary of statehood, was one of the largest and grandest of a series of industrial expositions that became hallmarks of the New South era. Modeled in particular…

The Tennessee Central Railroad was an important late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century competitor to the dominant Louisville and Nashville (L&N) and Southern Railway systems in Tennessee. Nashville capitalist and former Memphis and Charleston Railroad president Jere Baxter organized the line…

The Tennessee Century Farms Program is a public program that honors family farmers who have kept continuously owned family land in agricultural production for at least the last one hundred years. Established by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture in 1975-76…

The Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area (TCWNHA) tells the story of America’s Greatest Challenge, 1860-1875, through Civil War and Reconstruction sites and resources across the state. The only national heritage area to encompass an entire state, the TCWNHA is…

The Tennessee Civil War Veterans' Questionnaires form an extensive collection of documents housed in the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville and are a useful tool for the study of the state's nineteenth-century social conditions. The questionnaire's 1,650 respondents…

In 1905 the Southern Baptist Convention authorized the establishment of a college for women to be located in Murfreesboro and to be known as Tennessee College for Women. The institution was founded on the principle of offering the very best…