Encyclopedia

Episcopal bishop Thomas F. Gailor was born at Jackson, Mississippi, the son of Frank Marion Gailor and Charlotte Moffett. He graduated from Racine College, Wisconsin, in 1876, and then entered the General Theological Seminary, New York City. Gailor received his…

Frank P. Gaines, chief of the Engineering Division of Nashville District Corps of Engineers, directed the planning and design of seven multipurpose projects in the Cumberland River Basin, numerous local flood protection projects in the Cumberland and Tennessee River valleys,…

Edwin M. Gardner, illustrator, portraitist, and cartographer, was born near Pulaski in Giles County, but while still a young boy, he moved with his family to Mississippi, where he probably had some formal training in art. While in his teens,…

Bud Garrett, traditional blues musician and marble maker, was born January 28, 1916, to John Tom Garrett and Adeline Hamilton Garrett in Free Hill, a small African American settlement in Clay County established by freed slaves prior to the Civil…

This invaluable collection dates to 1907, when Gates P. Thruston (1835-1912) donated his collection of prehistoric Native American artifacts to Vanderbilt University. Containing about one thousand objects, the collection remains a peerless assemblage of prehistoric Native American art from the…

Gilbert Gaul, late nineteenth-century artist, is best known for his depictions of military topics, particularly scenes of the Civil War. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, he entered the National Academy of Design in New York City at age seventeen…

A vision of grandeur for the developing river metropolis at Memphis, the Gayoso House was built by Robertson Topp, a wealthy young planter. Topp was involved in the development of South Memphis, an area of houses, commercial buildings, and a…

Until it closed its doors in 2006, the John Geist and Sons Blacksmith Shop was thought to be Nashville’s oldest business in continuous family ownership and operation. From 1886 to 2006, three generations of Geists shod horses, crafted ornamental ironwork,…

One of the premier philanthropic foundations of the twentieth century, the General Education Board (GEB) invested heavily in Tennessee education. John D. Rockefeller Sr. created the GEB in 1902 in response to son John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s enthusiastic report of…

This Nashville-based company, which grew from a small local shoe manufacturer to one of the nation's largest apparel companies, has been an important Tennessee enterprise for over seventy years. With sales exceeding one million dollars its first year in business,…

Tennessee is a narrow state over 500 miles long, with its long axis running east-west across the grain of the geology. Most of the geological provinces of the east-central United States are represented somewhere in Tennessee. Since geology exercises a…

Records of Tennessee's diverse geology of complex mountains, rivers, valleys, rocks, minerals, soils, and earthquakes began with reports by literate travelers. The first such report was made by Father J. F. Buisson St. Cosme, who survived a Memphis-area earthquake in…

Located in Coffee County near Tullahoma, the George Dickel Distillery holds the distinction of being one of only two legal Tennessee distilleries that remain in operation, the other being the Jack Daniel Distillery in Moore County. In the late 1860s,…

Designated as the George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University since 1979, this distinguished institution has a 213-year lineage through seven name changes. In 1784 Nashville set aside three land tracts for a collegiate institution; Davidson Academy (1785-86) was chartered by…

The Tennessee General Assembly created Gibson County on October 21, 1823, out of lands ceded by the Chickasaws in the Jackson Purchase. It was named in honor of Colonel John H. Gibson, who served under Andrew Jackson in the Natchez…