Library News

After John McPherson’s death in 1908, his family took great care to seal the young man’s grave.

Calling all Vol fans!

Plotting Pumpkins Decorating Contest 

Cat in the Hat and Pete the Cat look purr-fect as pumpkin heads! Halloween is the season for creativity, so turn a pumpkin into your favorite hero or villain from a beloved book, movie, show, or game.

Have you ever heard of Knoxville’s Methodist Hill? Did you know an entire graveyard was dug up and relocated from the current location of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame? If not, please read about the history of East Hill Methodist Church.  

Exploring historical maps can send you down a fascinating rabbit hole—especially when you're trying to trace streets that existed before the interstate reshaped the city.

The 19th Children’s Festival of Reading was held on Saturday, May 17 at World’s Fair Park. 

Virtual reality may be all the rage today, but immersive 3D experiences have much older roots—dating all the way back to the 19th century.

May 17 is just around the corner. It's nearly time for the award-winning Children's Festival of Reading! With four stages and 50+ tents, you'll need a plan.

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!

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.

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.

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.

      To mark the McClung Historical Collection’s 13^th Moses Smith Day highlight, celebrating our esteemed Civil War veteran and Custom House policeman Moses Smith, McClung Reference Librarian Danette Welch looks at the life of another Knoxvillian who died on a November

Roderick “Roddie” Waring Edmonds was born to Thomas C. Edmonds and Jennie Sexton Edmonds in Knoxville on August 20, 1919.

Dr. John Edward Reinhardt was born to Edward Reinhardt and Alice Miller Reinhardt in Glade Spring, Virginia, on March 8, 1920. The family moved to Knoxville by 1927.