This fall, we are providing a student enrolled in the History Department's public history course with the opportunity to work in the Archives and gain experience with archival outreach. Sierra Maxwell, who is a new Graduate Assistant in the Archives and enrolled in the course, will be sharing her thoughts on working in the Archives …
Continue reading From Our Collections: William Flinn Rogers Papers
While sorting through donations, we occasionally come across materials that really aren’t suited for the Archives of Appalachia. Maybe we already have several copies of whatever it is, or maybe it’s not relevant to our mission. If the donor has agreed that we can “dispose or disperse” as we see fit, our first step with …
Continue reading From acquistion to preliminary inventory: The Burleson Family Papers
In 1873, Congress established the Committee on War Claims. This committee expanded on the former Committee on Revolutionary Claims to include “claims arising from any war in which the United States has been engaged.” The Committee on War Claims provided an avenue for individuals who lost property during the Civil War (1861-1865) to file for …
Continue reading Civil War Claims
Today is the first day of classes at East Tennessee State University and we’re taking a look at just a small segment in the history of one of the most important buildings on campus – the library. Although ETSU began in 1911 with the formation of the East Tennessee State Normal School, it was not …
Continue reading Back to the Books
We've pulled some festive holiday cards and photographs. The cards come from the Georgia C. Coffey Family Papers and the photographs from the James Garvin Ellis Negatives. The cards are not dated; however, the photographs are black and white scenes of Johnson City, Tennessee during the 1958-1959 holiday season. These cards and pictures evoke holiday …
Continue reading Happy Holidays from the Archives!
In the early nineteenth century, the idea of “Manifest Destiny” – the desire of Americans to spread the country across the continent - was popular thoughout the United States. With Texas in flux after its 1836 revolution against Mexico, some U.S. politicians and citizens believed Texas should be annexed into the union. This sentiment was also shared …
Continue reading An Appalachian in Mexico
Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University 