Tennessee

In this 150th anniversary edition of Meharry history, Parham documents graduating classes since 1877. This second volume is a must-have for Meharrians past, present, and future.

Since 1876, Meharry Medical College has been a beacon of light to a people of color who were determined to obtain an education to ensure the survival of a race of people who, in the words of the second president of Meharry Medical College, John Mullowney, were “a people brought here without assent or knowledge of being removed from their native land.” Thus began the succession of physicians who have for 150 years marched forth to serve mankind with these words indelibly marked on their hearts and their souls, “the spirit of this place called Meharry.” Over the past 150 years, the departments and programs of Meharry have dramatically changed. The Meharry of today encompasses the future of medical technology the ancestors would have dared to imagine.

Author Sandra Martin Parham was born and raised in Nashville. She currently serves as a commissioner on the Nashville Historical Commission and as executive director of the Meharry Medical College Library and Archives. Her first title for Arcadia Publishing was Campus History Series: Meharry Medical College, a historical chronology dated by each president’s administration. 

Ijams Nature Center, on the banks of the Tennessee River, evolved from humble beginnings during the early 20th century into a natural showplace known as the Island Home Bird Sanctuary. Developed by Harry Ijams, Knoxville's leading ornithologist, and Alice Yoe Ijams, "First Lady of Knoxville Garden Clubs," the Ijams property has been a gathering point for birders and nature-lovers for more than a century. Girl Scouting has been a fixture at Ijams since 1923, followed by Camp Mary Ijams, and Camp Margaret Townsend in the Smokies was created in part through Ijams and Townsend family ties. Harry Ijams also helped establish the first official campsite on Mount LeConte and used his artistry as a commercial illustrator to promote the Smoky Mountains as a national park. Over the years, Ijams Nature Center has grown in size and stature to become the region's leading wildlife sanctuary and environmental learning center incorporating Mead's Quarry, which in its heyday produced Tennessee marble used both in local buildings and national monuments.

Cherokee Indians lived in the Soddy-Daisy area long before European settlers came to the beautiful valley in the late 18th century. When these pioneers found the area abundant with rich soil, clay, and coal, they established some of the first coal mines in Hamilton County. Soddy-Daisy is a city of approximately 12,000; it was once two separate towns that incorporated in 1969. Readers will enjoy viewing vintage photographs and learning about early families, prominent homes, community events,
businesses, and landmarks. Most of the more than 200 images in this volume have never before been published.

Rare, historic images lift the veil on a town's history, revealing heroes and villains that will shock and delight.

Named for its ebullient natural springs, Fountain City, Tennessee, has a rich history and a truly unique identity. Originally established in 1788 by John Adair as Adair's Fort, this area was a depot for the Cumberland Guard, which protected emigrant families traveling to settlements in present-day Nashville. With a population of about 30,000, Fountain City was thought to be the nation's largest unincorporated city by the mid-20th century. Though this distinction was lost when the community was incorporated into Knoxville in 1962, Fountain City has maintained a separate identity and preserved its extensive history. Filled with detailed images of the area, this volume provides a rare glimpse of the people, places, and events that have molded the suburb into an ideal environment in which to learn, relax, and enjoy a myriad of recreational activities.

McMinn County was founded in 1819 on land previously owned by the Cherokee Nation. Situated in Southeast Tennessee, McMinn County is halfway between Knoxville and Chattanooga, Atlanta and Bristol, and New York and Miami. For its citizens, it remains a rural county of mountain ridges with deep hollows and wide, creek-watered valleys; its different topography also defines the diverse people who, for 150 years, have called McMinn County home. Postcard History Series: McMinn County features many long-forgotten scenes from Athens, Englewood, and Etowah. All three have different histories, different people, and different stories to tell.

Situated in the geographical center of Shelby County, Bartlett is one of the fastest growing communities in the metro Memphis area. Originally known as Union Depot, Bartlett was chartered in 1866 and was renamed in honor of Gabrial Maston Bartlett. Settlers such as Nicholas Gotten, Samuel Bond, John Blackwell, and Gabrial Bartlett helped to lay the foundation for the city so many call home today. From its early farming days through the Civil War and yellow fever, Bartlett has continued to grow and prosper. Voted the best sports town in Tennessee by Sports Illustrated, Bartlett has seen tremendous growth in recent years, yet it has kept the warmth and feel of a small town.

In 1836, Collierville received its name from Jesse R. Collier, a local entrepreneur, who advertised lots for sale in what he called the "Town of Collier." Even after its formal incorporation in 1850, the town was mistakenly known as both Oak Grove and Colliersville. Additionally documents from the late 19th century put Collierville in both Tennessee and Mississippi. By 1858, the population was recorded at around 250 people, doubling by 1860. Much of the town was destroyed during the Civil War, but in 1866, the town sprang back around a park designated as a "public square." Once a stagecoach rest stop and later a railroad stop, the town anchors the southeast corner of Shelby County, lying about 30 miles east of Memphis and the Mississippi River. Today Collierville's population has grown to more than 42,000 people. With its downtown a jewel of Victorian-era homes and churches surrounding the Historic Town Square, Collierville, Tennessee, retains a small-town charm that keeps longtime residents rooted and draws increasing numbers of new citizens yearly.

Murfreesboro was recognized as an official city in 1817, and from 1818 to 1826, it was the capital of Tennessee. In its early years, the town established itself as a rich agricultural community. By 1853, the area was home to three colleges and several academies. Murfreesboro played a decisive role in the Civil War and suffered the loss of many of its people and much of its architecture. However, in the early 20th century, Murfreesboro regained its momentum and began to rebuild. Many of the buildings from this era still exist today and stand as great reminders of the town's past.

Nestled in the mountains where Tennessee meets Kentucky and Virginia, the towns of Harrogate and Cumberland Gap showcase the nation's history and the beauty of nature.

Here, a British investor dreamed of creating a resort town that rivaled the spas of Europe. The Panic of 1893 crushed those plans, but it also allowed a former Civil War general to keep his promise to Abraham Lincoln that he would do something to assist the area's mountain people. As a university that became a memorial to the 16th president grew in Harrogate, locomotives steamed through Cumberland Gap. The 1930s and 1940s marked hard times, but the pluck of the populace held firm. Indeed, the philanthropic effort put into the region, as well as a southern movie premier and even a presidential visit, demonstrated the area's potential. As time marched on, both Harrogate and Cumberland Gap welcomed tourists who explored the nearby Cumberland Gap National Historical Park and visited the university's Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum.

Like many Southern cities, Nashville has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past two centuries, evolving from a simple
pioneering crossroads into a large cosmopolitan center with its citizens representing every nationality, race, and creed. The latter years of the nineteenth century proved especially momentous in the city's growth and development, and two visionary Nashvillians, Carl and Otto Giers, documented the many different elements of city life through their photographic talent.
In Nashville: From the Collection of Carl and Otto Giers Volume II, readers will journey to the Nashville of old and see the city through the artistry of the Giers' studio: a time when the city hosted some of the most recognizable and celebrated Confederate and Union officers, such as Nathan Bedford Forrest and Ulysses S. Grant, who both sat for studio portraits. Enduring the ravages of the Civil War, Nashville rebuilt itself and the Giers were there to record its rebirth, photographing everyday life against many different settings: from the city's graveyards, such as Calvary, Mount Olivet, and National Cemetery, to its poverty-stricken neighborhoods, to the elegant homes of the affluent, to the flourishing business district. Not just concerned with the routine, the Giers focused on capturing Nashville's history in the making, including portraits of state governors, such as William Gannaway Brownlow, Albert Smith Marks, and Robert Love Taylor, scenes of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition and the Tennessee Industrial Exposition, and the city's most-famous attractions, Belmont and the Hermitage.

Park City was incorporated in 1907 as a Tennessee municipality. From its inception in the 1890s, Park City became a melting pot of Greek, Swiss, Jewish, African American, German, Italian, and Scotch-Irish entrepreneurs of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Cal Johnson, a former slave and resident of Park City, became one of the wealthiest men in Tennessee. Johnson invested in race horses, taverns, and real estate, and he operated a race track in Burlington on the eastern edge of Park City. The half-mile track is still intact as a city street known as Speedway Circle. Today, Park City is a virtual museum of Victorian homes designed by mail-order architect and Park City resident George F. Barber. The residence he designed and built for himself still stands on Washington Avenue. Other highlights include Park City's pre-Civil War history and important trade expositions of national significance hosted in Park City from 1910 to 1913. In 1917, Park City was annexed into the city of Knoxville, but the community retained its cultural and historical identity for many years around Chilhowee Park. Once a privately owned estate and lake, Chilhowee Park became Park City's social center, welcoming such notable figures as Teddy Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, and Louis Armstrong.

Join authors Darlene Hooker Sawyer and Dr. Jane Howles Hooker as they recount the rich history of Cordova, Tennessee through vintage images.

The simple lifestyle once shared by many families on rural farmlands in Cordova is but a dream of yesteryear, as those days are long gone. Early settlers spread into the adjacent communities of Sanga, Bethany, Pisgah, Lenow, and Morning Sun, and children from these areas went to the original brick Cordova School. Families held social gatherings at the school and local churches. At one time, 92 percent of the fresh flowers sold in Memphis were grown in Cordova; thus the town's motto: ""Farms, Flowers, Fellowship."" Though it was eventually annexed by the City of Memphis, many historic homes and buildings still remain in the old town area in the heart of Cordova.

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication, and many of the postcards produced during this "golden age" can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America's history. This fascinating new history of Nashville, Tennessee, showcases more than two hundred of the best vintage postcards available.

A center of New South industry and expansion, Nashville has enjoyed a long and unusual history, from its time as a budding pioneer community to its development as the Volunteer State's capital city. The prolific work of two visionary nineteenth-century photographers, a father and his adopted son,
has truly captured a Nashville of bygone times, when the city was the home of presidents, a site for both Confederate and Union occupation, and a place of
flourishing architectural tastes and cultures. Nashville: From the Collection of Carl and Otto Giers chronicles the work and talent of Carl and Otto Giers, two photographers who enjoyed a long-lasting love affair with their hometown. Both were interested in recording their personal Nashville, which was constantly changing due to the pressures of
their times: war, Reconstruction, urban development, and many community "improvements," which tore down historic buildings for new businesses and buildings. This volume, with over 200 striking images, showcases their combined work in preserving Nashville's unique heritage from 1855 to the turn of the century. A fascinating visual history, Nashville: From the Collection of Carl and Otto Giers takes you on an incredible tour through the city's many historic landmarks, such as The Hermitage, Belle Meade mansion, Belmont plantation, and the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, and allows you to experience first-hand the street scenes, the different fashions of the nineteenth century, and the cityscapes and landscapes from Union occupation to the late 1890s.

Warren County, Tennessee, was founded in 1807 and named after Dr. Joseph Warren, who fought in the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Throughout its history, much has changed.

Missy Tipton Green and Paulette Ledbetter recall the rich past in this fascinating pictorial history.

Situated in Tuckaleechee Cove, one of several ""limestone windows"" on the northern base of the Smoky Mountains, is Townsend, Tennessee, also known as the ""Peaceful Side of the Smokies."" Native Americans were the first inhabitants of Tuckaleechee Cove. By the time the first Europeans arrived in the late 18th century, the Cherokee villages had been abandoned. In the 1880s, the lumber industry was in full swing thanks to two key innovations: the band saw and the logging railroad. With the coming of industrialization, the isolated farming community of Tuckaleechee Cove was transformed in the bustling mill town of Townsend. In 1894, E.J. Kinzel started a mountain retreat in Tuckaleechee Cove, which in later years turned into a mountain hotel with two healing mineral springs.

Memphis is a city founded on some of the great vestiges of our past. City staples such as steamboats, cotton plantations and exchange centers, relics symbolic of the city's rich industrial and agrarian legacy, have either been forgotten or completely lost. Every city, especially one as thoroughly modern as Memphis, naturally loses even the more recent aspects of its past through growth and expansion. Join Memphian and library historian Laura Cunningham as she unearths the lost hallmarks of Memphis, from the city's earliest beginnings to the present. Filled with rare and archival images that range from whimsical to haunting, Lost Memphis provides a glimpse into the vanished landmarks and bygone ways of life that once defined the city. Though the people and places featured in Lost Memphis are gone, this collection of compelling photos ensures that they will never be truly lost to history.

Cleveland's rich history includes serving as the last Cherokee Indian capital in the East and as the headquarters for eight Pentecostal denominations. The images in Postcard History Series: Cleveland depict the residences, businesses, churches, motels, and schools of the area. Most of the cards have been carefully selected from Mitchell T. Kinder's collection, the largest known postcard accumulation featuring Cleveland and Bradley County, totaling over 500 cards.

The fertile agricultural lands and majestic Cumberland Mountain wilderness that constitute Warren County belonged to the Cherokee Indians until the signing of the Third Treaty of Tellico on October 25, 1805, which officially opened up the region to pioneer settlers. Records show that a hunting party of white explorers made its way into the area from North Carolina and Virginia in 1769, and there is evidence that some families had settled in the territory as early as 1800. One of the earliest land grants is dated 1785 and was issued to Samson Collins in the vicinity of Rock Island. Warren County was officially established on November 26, 1807, by an act of the Tennessee General Assembly when the recently established county of White was divided. Within a decade, the population numbered almost 20,000. The authors present this book in celebration of Warren County's bicentennial in 2007, with its population currently numbering well over 40,000.