Institution

The United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) in Tennessee experienced every facet of war between 1863 and 1865. In the spring of 1863 General Lorenzo Thomas was appointed Commissioner for the Organization of Colored Troops for the Union army in Tennessee.…

Established in Marshall County in 1929, the United States Dairy Experiment Station has played a significant role in the improvement of dairy livestock and the dairy industry in Tennessee. Lewisburg civic entrepreneur and cattle auctioneer Jim N. McCord, Jersey cattle…

A significant reminder of the importance of the iron industry to Chattanooga's growth is the United States Pipe and Foundry Company, one of Chattanooga's oldest manufacturing establishments and a familiar landmark on the city's skyline. The company's owners, David Giles…

Memphis-based Universal Life Insurance Company (ULICO), the second African American company in the United States to attain million-dollar-capital status (1947), has been described as one of the "ten top Negro owned and operated business enterprises in the world" and as…

Names reflect an institution's history, and the University of Memphis has undergone several name changes: West Tennessee State Normal School (1912-25), West Tennessee State Teachers College (1925-30), State Teachers College, Memphis (1930-41), Memphis State College (1941-57), Memphis State University (1957-94),…

The University of Tennessee was founded as Blount College, named for Territorial Governor William Blount and chartered on September 10, 1794, by the legislature of the Southwest Territory sitting in Knoxville. Located in a single building in a frontier village…

In 1886 the Methodist Episcopal Church, North founded Chattanooga University. Strife within the church over educational policy in the South soon undermined Chattanooga University and led to its consolidation in 1889 with a rival school, Grant Memorial University in Athens,…

The only public four-year college in West Tennessee outside Memphis, the University of Tennessee at Martin traces its roots to Hall-Moody Institute, founded by local Baptists in 1900. Named for J. N. Hall and J. B. Moody, two prominent Baptist…

Founded in 1911, the UT Health Science Center includes the Colleges of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy; the School of Biomedical Engineering; the Bowld Hospital in Memphis; and the Graduate School of Medicine and…

Fifty-four years after the city-owned and -operated Knoxville General Hospital opened in 1902, it was replaced by the University of Tennessee Memorial Research Center and Hospital. A number of forces converged to bring about the culmination of a nearly twelve-year…

In 1857, when it was learned that the dioceses of the Episcopal Church planned to establish an educational center, citizens of Franklin County made common cause with the Sewanee Mining Company to offer a 10,000-acre parcel, half of which was…

In 1888 an enterprising student at Fisk University petitioned his fellow senior classmates to join with the fledgling Fisk Alumni Association (organized in 1884) to raise funds for a new multipurpose building for the school's campus. The unwavering dedication and…

Vanderbilt University in Nashville owes its inception to the vision of a great university dreamed by the leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in the 1850s. Efforts to realize the dream were abandoned during the Civil War and finally…

One of the nation's premier academic health centers, Vanderbilt University Medical Center traces its lineage to the University of Nashville and to Shelby Medical College. The latter institution, open only a brief time (1858-61), was established by the Methodist Episcopal…

Before Dr. Emma Rochelle Wheeler opened Walden Hospital in Chattanooga in 1915, African Americans who required medical care were hospitalized in the basements of existing majority hospitals such as Erlanger Hospital or Newell Clinic. Wheeler, a physician who had practiced…

Nashville's Wallace University School was established in 1886 through the leadership of A. G. Adams, J. B. O'Bryan, and R. B. Throne. Desiring to establish a boys' school that emphasized character and scholarship, these men offered the position of headmaster…

By 1853 Jesse Warren (1814-1885) and his partner Joseph Moore (1821-1871) had established a millwork machine shop on Nashville's High Street. Four years later, the nearly fifty employees of Warren & Moore were using the era's most modern steam powered…

The origins of the Washington Manufacturing Company can be traced to 1812, when William Chester bought 260 acres near the mouth of Bumpass Cove in iron-rich Washington County and built a forge. He later sold this forge to third generation…

By 1772 about seventy homesteads or farms had been established along the Watauga River in northeastern Tennessee (now Carter County). The area lay outside the boundaries of British colonial government and within the recognized boundaries of Cherokee territory. Disregarding the…

In 1880, eighty-six-year-old Samuel Watkins--soldier, brick mason, brick manufacturer, and businessman--died. Reputedly the richest man in Nashville, Watkins left one hundred thousand dollars and a lot at the corner of High Street (Sixth Avenue) and Church in trust to the…