Welcome to Tennessee Virtual Archive (TeVA), a program of the State Library and Archives to create a digital repository of Tennessee history and culture. Our mission is to bring electronic versions of the state’s rich collections to a wider audience. TeVA provides a searchable array of historical records, photographs, documents, maps, postcards, film, audio and other original materials of enduring value.
Collection List
Items within TeVA are only selections from larger collections. Please consult the online finding aids, when available, for more information about the entire collection. Also, feel free to contact our Reference Department by Phone (615-741-2764) or email (reference.tsla@state.tn.us) if you wish to view the whole collection.
Tennessee Postcard Collection
Engaging postcard views of the attractions and distinctive locales of Tennessee.
Online index: http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/postcards/index.htm
Dr. Harry S. Mustard Photograph Album, 1924-1928
1920s black and white views of rural schools and children of Rutherford County.
Dept. of Conservation Photograph Collection, 1937-1976
Photographs from the Arts, Crafts, & Folklife Series showing Appalachian people and scenes of the 1930s.
Online finding aid: http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/state/recordgroups/findingaids/rg82.pdf
Fisk University Scrapbook:
School Memories, William Henry Fort, Jr. (1911-1974)
TSLA has chosen to display portions of this scrapbook in order to highlight the contributions of Fisk University, especially the historically significant role that the university played during a time of great social upheaval in the South.
Online finding aid: Ambrose A. Bennett Family Papers, 1918-1996 http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/manuscripts/findingaids/99-100.pdf
Hardy A. Mitchener, Jr. Journal
A richly detailed journal created by Hardy A. Mitchener, Jr., a Nashville, Tennessee, native who was captured in Germany during World War II and sent to Stalag Luft III as a POW.
Kenneth D. Rose Sheet Music Collection
Compiled by a former Ward-Belmont Conservatory of Music faculty member, the Rose Music Collection is a vast and diverse collection of American sheet music, which includes Confederate, minstrel, comic, patriotic, and war songs.
Online exhibit: http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/exhibits/rose/exhibit_rose.htm
Miers River Photograph Collection
Photographs from the 1920s of steamboats, river-related work, and African Americans on the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers.
William Strickland Sketchbook
Watercolors of European monuments drawn by the Philadelphia architect who designed the Tennessee State Capitol.
Early 20th Century Schoolhouses
http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/state/recordgroups/findingaids/rg273.pdf
http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/state/recordgroups/findingaids/rg273a.pdf
Tennessee Founding & Landmark Documents
http://www.tennessee.gov/tsla/history/manuscripts/findingaids/90-288.pdf
Tennessee Centennial Exposition
Images in this collection primarily depict the array of buildings and individuals involved with this celebration, and are drawn from various record groups in the holdings of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Historical Maps of Tennessee
Selections from the Tennessee State Library & Archives extensive collection of historical maps. This collection will expand as more maps are converted to digital form.
Bernhardt Wall Etchings
Etchings of former U. S. President Andrew Jackson and sites and people important to his life by artist Bernhardt Wall.
The Scopes “Monkey” Trial
This collection focuses on the John Thomas Scopes Trial, one of the landmark legal proceedings of the twentieth century, that took place during the summer of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. The trial received national attention as attorney Clarence Darrow battled William Jennings Bryan over the constitutionality of Tennessee’s anti-evolution statute, the Butler Act.
19th Century Native American Prints
Color prints from a three-volume set of Native-American portraits, entitled the History of The Indian Tribes of North America, with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs, assembled by Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall between 1836 and 1844.
Tennessee State Guard
Materials concerning the Tennessee State Guard that give an account of the Guard’s history as a military unit during World War II. Materials are drawn from two collections, the Jacob McGavock Dickinson Papers and Governor Prentice Cooper Papers.
Online finding aid: Jacob McGavock Dickinson Papers, 1812-1946 http://tennessee.gov/tsla/history/manuscripts/findingaids/1.pdf
Agriculture in Tennessee
The documents chosen for this collection include materials that promoted immigration for the purpose of agricultural endeavors, images that portray farmers at their trade, and other ephemera to illustrate Tennessee’s varied agricultural past.
Beautiful Jim Key
This collection focuses on Beautiful Jim Key, an Arabian Hambletonian horse, owned by Dr. William Key, a self-trained, African-American veterinarian (and former slave). Dr. Key partnered with promoter A. R. Rogers to showcase the extraordinary talents of Jim who was able to read, write, spell, tell time, do simple mathematics and sort mail.
Andrew Johnson Bicentennial
Items from this collection celebrate the bicentennial of Andrew Johnson's birth (1808-2008). Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States.
Reconstruction and the African-American Legacy in Tennessee
The ten years after the Civil War, known as Reconstruction, affected virtually every aspect of Southern life and brought many new rights to freed black men. Educational and political opportunities blossomed but not without serious consequences. This collection examines those struggles and victories.
Civilian Life in the Civil War
This collection focuses on an extremely important aspect of the Civil War that is often absent from popular American historical memory; the home front. As William Warren Rodgers points out in the preface to his work on Montgomery, Alabama’s wartime experience; “Some 900,000 soldiers served in Confederate armies;” but, “Over 9 million civilians lived in the seceding slave states.”
Throwaway History: The Broadside in American Culture
Broadsides are the legitimate representatives of the most ephemeral literature, the least likely to escape destruction, and yet they are the most vivid exhibitions of the manners, arts, and daily life, of communities and nations. The broadsides in this collection offer a striking look into the beliefs, philosophies and actions of the individuals and communities that shaped America.
Civil War Maps from the Western Theater
This collection includes original hand-drawn battle maps and published military maps of the Civil War, primarily of Tennessee and the Western Theater. Many of the maps are original items that were drawn by army engineers and surveyors during the war.
Coming Soon
War and Reunion: The 'Lost Cause' in Southern Memory
This collection deals with how Americans remembered their most divisive and tragic experience during the period after the Civil War. It explores civil war and reunion in Southern culture from the turning point in the war (1864) to the culmination of its centennial in 1961-1964. In many ways, this collection shows how sentimental remembrance triumphed over reality.
Civil War Visual Culture
This collection is a broadly conceived selection of items that shed light on various aspects of visual culture during the Civil War in America. While some items are from published sources, many are unique, hand-drawn pieces.
Sergeant Alvin C. York
Alvin Cullom York (1887-1964), of Fentress County, Tennessee, was a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and hero of the First World War. This collection explores York’s life and involvement with the York Institute in Jamestown. It also highlights selected photographs from the Albert F. Ganier, Sr. Photograph Collection. The Ganier photographs are relative to Warner Brothers Film Studio executives visiting Fentress County and Sergeant York prior to the production of the 1941 movie, “Sergeant York.”