Institution

The maker of the famous Goo Goo Candy Cluster began as Anchor Candy Company, founded in 1901 in Nashville by Howell H. Campbell Sr. The son of Millard and Anna Hooper Campbell, Howell Campbell was born in 1883 in Nashville.…

Memphis's great soul music recording company was founded in 1960 by siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. Aspiring to break into the music business, Stewart, a bond salesman, convinced his schoolteacher sister to mortgage her home for $2,500. Their company,…

With the end of the Civil War and restoration of communications and travel, investors identified and then developed many of the resources of the South. A land agent for the Stearns Salt and Lumber Company of Ludington, Michigan, traveling through…

From its inception in 1902 to its demise in 1918, the Summer School of the South was a major instrument of regional educational improvement, instructing some thirty-two thousand teachers in the art of education. The Summer School was born from…

Tennessee has two professional orchestras designated as "regional" (Nashville and Memphis) and three that fall in the "metropolitan" status (Chattanooga, Jackson, and Knoxville). Other cities with part-time orchestras are Oak Ridge, Murfreesboro, Johnson City, Kingsport, and Germantown, and the University…

TennCare, initiated by Governor Ned Ray McWherter on January 1, 1994, replaced the jointly federal- and state-funded Medicaid program in Tennessee. TennCare's mission was twofold: to cut costs and to expand health care coverage. Twelve statewide managed care organizations (MCOs)…

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…

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 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…

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…

The Tennessee branch of the American Colonization Society, which sought to free slaves and repatriate them to Africa, was organized as a debating society in Nashville in December 1829. Josiah F. Polk, an agent of the American Colonization Society, recruited…

On April 5, 1972, the same day that the state Senate ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, the Tennessee General Assembly created the Tennessee Commission on the Status of Women (TCSW). It was to study and highlight women's issues and to…

To conserve game animals for hunting, local sportsmen organized clubs in Tennessee as early as 1865, beginning with the McRae Club of Chattanooga. The first statewide organization, the Tennessee Federation of Sportsmen, was formed in 1934 to marshal local clubs…

The Tennessee State Constitution provides for three constitutional officers: the secretary of state, the comptroller of the treasury, and the treasurer. All three are elected by a joint session of the general assembly; the secretary of state serves a four-year…