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.

Headless John Sevier

Who's turning heads now?

A new addition to 601 S. Gay Street is turning heads. But one head in particular is missing. If you’ve noticed the newly installed marble sculpture in a nook at the East Tennessee History Center, you will certainly notice a missing head, and a hand for that matter.

Demolished Knoxville Church

The Lady in White: The Haunting of Old Gray Cemetery

      In the summer of 1879, Martin Woody seemed to have it all: a successful business, a beautiful wife, healthy children, a modern house in a coveted neighborhood and a position as one of the best-known young businessmen and building professionals about town.

Andrew Johnson Hotel

Meet Me at the AJ: A behind-the-scenes sneak peek at the iconic building

The Friends of the Library and Oliver Hospitality are hosting a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at the Andrew Johnson Hotel before renovations begin. The event, presented by First Century Bank, is a fundraiser for the Library's Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (TAMIS). The iconic building has been a defining feature in Knoxville's skyline for nearly 100 years and the tallest in East Tennessee for the first half century of its existence.
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.
Deposition of Mary Jane Robison

Jesse and Susan Hinton

“…I knew him [Jesse] well as he was great friends with my husband [James Greenway].  He said he had a wife and some children back in Carolina and he intended, if he ever could, to go back to them.  He wouldn’t pay attention to any other woman though he was a good-looking young fellow, a