Encyclopedia

The movement for an asylum in Tennessee arose in the context of the nationwide reforming furor associated with the Second Great Awakening. The asylum movement in America built its ideological arguments upon the theories of a group of European physicians…

The Tennessee Main Street Program grew out of a late-1970s national effort to revitalize historic business districts in American small towns and cities. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private nonprofit membership organization, pioneered the downtown revitalization approach upon…

Despite opposition from local whites and without northern missionary help, leaders in the Gay Street Colored Christian (Disciples of Christ) Church in Nashville established Tennessee Manual Labor University, the only freedmen's college in Tennessee founded by African Americans, in 1867.…

The Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) is a 6,800-member professional organization for medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy dedicated to protecting the health care interests of patients and enhancing the effectiveness of physicians throughout the state. Its headquarters is located in…

Founded in Nashville in October 1915, the Tennessee Ornithological Society (TOS) is an independent, nonprofit, educational, scientific organization dedicated to the study and conservation of birds. The original objectives of the TOS still hold today: (1) to promote the science…

Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation is a statewide non-profit organization that seeks to conserve and protect Tennessee’s rich heritage and natural resources. The Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation was established in 1997, merging the Tennessee State Parks Foundation and the…

Founded in 1989 as a service organization of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the Tennessee Presidents Trust supports financially the work of a unique documentary editing center dedicated to the publication of the papers of Tennessee's three American presidents, Andrew…

Section 32 of the Tennessee Constitution states that "the erection of safe and comfortable prisons, the inspection of prisons, and the humane treatment of prisoners, shall be provided for." In 1796 the legislature passed three separate acts to establish courthouses,…

Regulation of railroads, common carriers, and public utilities in Tennessee has followed not only development in the technological and economic structures of those industries, but changes in general professional and public attitudes toward monopolies, competition and governmental regulation, particularly as…

The Tennessee River system covers 41,000 square miles, draining portions of sixty Tennessee counties and seven states. The Tennessee River is the largest tributary to the Ohio River and is its equal in water volume. From its mouth at Paducah,…

The Tennessee Daughters of the American Revolution are represented in Washington, D.C., by the Tennessee Room of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Museum. It is located in Memorial Continental Hall, a National Historic Landmark constructed between 1904 and…

In 1998 the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Act celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. The Tennessee program, a pioneering effort, was the second state river conservation program in the nation (Wisconsin was the first, but Tennessee's program was the more comprehensive). The Scenic…

In 1925 a group of high school administrators attending a meeting of the Tennessee State Teachers' Association in Nashville organized the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA). Commonly known as TSSAA, the Association exists "to stimulate and regulate the athletic…

Robert Latendresse began Tennessee Shell Company in Camden in 1954 to ship Tennessee mollusk shells to Japan. There the shells were cut, ground into round beads, and inserted by Japanese pearl farmers into mollusks in Japan's waters to be the…

The Tennessee Supreme Court decided in 1993 that the system of financing public education in Tennessee violated the provisions of the Tennessee Constitution guaranteeing equal protection of the law to all citizens. The court held that the Tennessee General Assembly…

The cornerstone of the Tennessee State Capitol was laid on July 4, 1845. William Strickland designed the building and supervised construction until his death in April 1854. Two architects assisted in its completion. Strickland's son, Francis, served as architect for…

Although recommended as early as the 1870s, a state forest system received its first impetus in 1900 when President William McKinley asked for a report on the natural resources of the Southern Appalachians, including Tennessee. In response to the report's…