Library News

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Image of a baseball stadium

Batter UP! It's baseball time in Tennessee!

Nothing says spring like the crack of the bat. Here in East Tennessee, this spring is all about baseball. In anticipation of the opening of the ballpark, we are celebrating the national pastime with an exhibition and some programs. Plus, we have some suggested reading for your bedside table!

portrait of a lad not on fire

The Gay Street Fire of 1826-1827

New Year 1827 rang in not only with a bang, but also with a towering wave of fire whose terror and devastation were burned into the memory of almost everyone who lived through it.

Vandeventer family, New Year's Eve 1899

A Holiday Season in Knoxville Two Hundred Years Ago

One hundred years ago, people were curious about Christmases of the past, too. By the 1920s, Isabella Cowan Rhea (1849-1935) had lived in downtown Knoxville for three quarters of a century, and her family had been in downtown since frontier times.

Edward and nannie Kline photograph

Edward and Nannie Kline

The picture of 1st U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery Sgt. Edward Kline is a treasure as well as a bit of a mystery.
Mayor Glenn Jacobs wears a fringed frontier jacket with a costume bear character

Read City Adventure Begins

With 500+ kids screaming at the top of their lungs, you’d think the Beatles were in the house—or Taylor Swift. The enthusiasm was real, but the star of the show was books and reading.

Jane Merchant

What about Jane?

Knoxville likes to flaunt her literary giants -- and rightly so. After all, what other town our size can claim a significant handful of Pulitzer Prize- winning writers and an Oscar nod or two? We do have a lot to gloat about.