Museum’s “Gilded Age” Exhibit Includes Items from Special Collections

A new exhibition opening May 26 at UT’s McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture depicts consumer culture in the American Gilded Age. The exhibition includes a number of objects on loan from UT Libraries’ Special Collections. Fish Forks and Fine Furnishings: Consumer Culture in the Gilded Age explores the personal and household objects that … Continued

Join us to Celebrate Special Collections, Honor Betsey Creekmore on April 27

The Special Collections Reading Room at the John C. Hodges Library has a sleek new look. And the Elaine Altman Evans Exhibit Area in the first-floor galleria is allowing a new audience to discover our special collections. You are invited to an event celebrating these exciting enhancements to Special Collections on Thursday, April 27. A … Continued

From Medieval Alchemy to Tennessee Moonshine

Special Collections continually seeks new areas on which to focus acquisitions. We look for topics with regional significance that have potential for broad impact. One such area is the ancient art of moonshining. Bootlegging has long been the subject of storytelling in the hills of the Appalachian Mountains. The illegal distillation of spirits was a … Continued

The latest from the Smokies Project: The Photographs and Films of William Derris

From the 1940s through the 1960s, William Derris, owner of the Derris Motel in Townsend, traveled by automobile around the accessible parts of the Smokies recording the people and scenery in both slides and silent film. He used the images and films to entertain and inform the guests at his hotel. His collection was donated … Continued

Letters from a Founding Father

William Blount and John Sevier are early American politicians that you would expect to be represented in the University of Tennessee Special Collections manuscript collection. But other members of our founding generation represented in UT’s Special Collections might surprise you. For example we have three items from George Washington, the Commander in Chief of the … Continued

UT Libraries Acquires Two Historically Significant First Editions

Two historically important books, acquired by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have been added to the library’s special collections. Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved person in the household of a prosperous Boston family. Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (published 1773) was the first published book by an African-American woman. Life of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, … Continued

Terra Incognita, a bibliography of the Smokies, published by UT Press

Join us for a brown bag lecture, “‘Terra Incognita:’ The Great Smoky Mountains in Print,” at the East Tennessee History Center, March 12, 2014, from noon to 1:00 p.m., to hear highlights from the recently published bibliography. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Terra Incognita is the most comprehensive bibliography of sources related to the Great Smoky Mountains ever created. … Continued

Your artwork or photo mash-up can win cash

The UT Libraries is holding two contests that offer cash awards. The STUDENT ART IN THE LIBRARY juried exhibition seeks drawings, graphic design, prints, photography, paintings — any two-dimensional work — for display. Selected works will be on display in 135 Hodges Library throughout the spring semester. The top three works get cash prizes ($300, … Continued