The images in this section of the Tennessee Virtual Archive depict individuals and cultural traditions throughout the Appalachian region of the state. The photographs in this collection are only a small selection from Record Group 82: the Tennessee Department of Conservation Photograph Collection, 1937-1976. This selection is taken from …
This photograph album presents detailed visual documentation of the Commonwealth Fund Child Health Demonstration’s (CHD) study of children from Rutherford County, Tennessee, between 1924 and 1928. The CHD’s philanthropic venture was to promote the welfare of humanity by providing publicly funded child health education and care, …
Maps are invaluable components of historical and genealogical research, and documentary records often cannot be fully understood without referring to maps. The Tennessee State Library and Archives has a large and varied collection of historical and contemporary maps available for public use. We hope to increase utilization of this …
The Earl S. Miers River Photographs date from the first decade of the 20th century (ca. 1900-1912) and show steamboats, buildings, people and scenes along the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers. There are 69 photographs in the collection, 34 of which are displayed here.
Many of the photographs depict steamboats belonging to the St. …
The Kenneth D. Rose Sheet Music Collection contains first editions and imprints of sheet music pertaining to a variety of subjects, including the American Civil War (particularly the Confederacy), politics and presidents, wars, ships and shipping, sports, minstrels, and comic songs. The collection has more than 20,000 pieces of music, …
The items in the Tennessee Postcard Collection span a broad timeframe and include images from across the state. Unlike other collections at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the items in this grouping are similar only in format. The postcards that comprise the Tennessee Postcard Collection have been gathered from various …
From King George’s Proclamation of 1763 to the earliest purchase of land from Native Americans to the first Constitutions of the State of Tennessee, these are among the most important records from our past. Significant milestones in the formation and early history of the state are presented here for the first time in digital form taken …
William Henry Fort, Jr.’s Fisk University scrapbook comprises part of the Ambrose A. Bennett Family Papers and consists of approximately 500 items. The Bennett Family Papers contain numerous sermons given by the Reverend Bennett, an African-American minister born in Davidson County, Tennessee. The collection also includes photographs, …
The images in this section of the Tennessee Virtual Archive are the watercolor drawings and sketches of famed architect William Strickland (1788-1854). While traveling in Europe in 1838, William Strickland produced a series of elegantly rendered watercolor sketches. In their detail, the sketches chronicle the deep appreciation Strickland …
The photographs in this online exhibit, selected from the Frierson-Warfield Papers and Karl Kleeman World War I Photographs, provide a thoughtful look at the Western Front during World War I from an American perspective. The photographs were chosen for their high quality and because they present a visual history of the 30th (Old Hickory) …
In 1897, Tennessee held a six-month celebration to mark the one-hundredth anniversary of statehood. The Tennessee Centennial Exposition was held in Nashville from May 1 until October 30, 1897, although the state’s actual centennial occurred in 1896. The images in this collection primarily depict the array of buildings and …
Brigadier General Jacob McGavock Dickinson, Jr.’s, Tennessee State Guard scrapbook comprises part of the Jacob McGavock Dickinson (1851-1928) Papers, 1812-1946. The papers of Jacob McGavock Dickinson (Tennessee Supreme Court Justice, 1891-1893; Assistant Attorney General of the United States, 1895-1897; Secretary of War, 1909-1911; …
Hardy A. Mitchener, Jr. was a 2nd Lieutenant in the 509th Bombardment Squadron, 351st Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force, stationed in Polebrook, England, during World War II. He was shot down and captured on May 30, 1944, after a bombing mission in Oschersleben, Germany, and sent to Stalag Luft III shortly thereafter. During his stay at …
TSLA has chosen to display portions of Bernhardt Wall’s Following Andrew Jackson, a limited edition pictorial biography containing etchings of scenes from Jackson’s life. Given the historical focus of many of Wall’s subjects and scenery, in addition to his meticulous artistic process, Wall’s work is considered by many to be a …
Without a doubt, the question, “where do humans come from?” was asked long before Charles Darwin published Origin of Species in 1859. Yet throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, the debate amongst members of the scientific and religious communities has continued to be a divisive and widely debated topic. …
In celebration of the bicentennial of Andrew Johnson’s birth and to commemorate his legacy, the images exhibited in this collection attempt to examine Johnson’s controversial political career and, at the same time, provide a glimpse at his personal life and humble beginnings. A significant portion of the material represented in …
For years, the Reconstruction era marked a tumultuous period in American and Tennessee history. Even before the formal process of Reconstruction began following the Civil War, steps were taken to address the rights of freed slaves and the readmission of Confederate states to the Union. The materials in this collection portray a few …
Intended for wide distribution, broadsides were traditionally used as a tool to disseminate information. Printed on large sheets of paper and sometimes rich in illustration, broadsides were posted on buildings or handed out to the general population. These ephemera were often produced in mass quantities to advertise, promote or …
Military maps have always played a crucial role in planning strategy, designing battle plans, and finding the best points for supply routes or even a retreat. This was no more evident than in the American Civil War where large armies traversed a widespread landscape unfamiliar to most commanders. Knowing the roads to and from the sites …
The “Civil War Visual Culture” unit of the Tennessee Virtual Archive showcases a wide variety of Civil War-related materials: sheet music covers, professionally designed lithographs, flags, hand-drawn letters, military drawings, and other images. These items represent some of the ways in which a tragic era in America’s history …
As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the seeds of Southern mythology idealizing the service of the South’s aging Confederate veterans began to take root. Defeated militarily, in the decades following 1865 the South struggled to vindicate the decisions that had led to secession and to an armed conflict that had cost so many men …
When the Civil War erupted, the new medium of photography had only been in existence for a little over twenty years. The daguerreotype had emerged as the most common early photographic type, but each image was unique (a positive image rather than a negative) and proved to be a challenge to reproduce. Most of the Civil War photographers …
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War (2011-2015), the Tennessee State Library and Archives (TSLA) is sending teams of archivists and conservators across the state of Tennessee to document and preserve Civil War-era materials. Thus far, the team has digitized thousands of original items that have rarely been viewed by the …
This unit of the Tennessee Virtual Archive features images of the work and history of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Tennessee. Created in 1933 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to preserve and nurture America’s natural resources, the CCC brought forests back from the brink of destruction, established recreational …
This unit of the Tennessee Virtual Archive celebrates the tradition of quilting in Tennessee. The images displayed here, drawn from a variety of collections at TSLA, portray both quilts themselves and Tennessee quilters engaging in their craft. Audio files of oral histories provided by quiltmakers are also featured here, offering a …
The images found in this section have been gathered from various manuscript collections and offer a glimpse at the wide variety of material available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives that may be of interest to those researching Civil War history and genealogy. These images illustrate the extensive recordkeeping system at …
Tennessee’s School for the Deaf, created by law in 1844, boasts a remarkably long and stable history of educating the state’s students with hearing disabilities. The school has operated since 1845 in Knoxville, closing only for the Civil War and relocating only once (from downtown to an inner suburb). This unit of the Tennessee …
Perhaps no other single structure among Nashville’s buildings so epitomizes Music City’s spirit as the Ryman Auditorium. Recognized around the world as the “Mother Church of Country Music,” the Ryman is best known for having hosted the Grand Ole Opry, a weekly radio show, for decades. However, the history of the Ryman …
Welcome to the 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.
Items within TeVA are only selections from manuscripts collections at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Please consult the online finding aids, when available, for more information about manuscripts collections. Also, feel free to contact our Reference Department by phone (615-741-2764) or email (reference.tsla@tn.gov) if you wish to view other related items. For information on ordering images and other content found in TeVA collections, click here.
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