Objects

Ferdinand Rugel was a professional field botanist who primarily collected in the Southern Appalachians, Florida, and Cuba. His collections were sold in Europe, mainly through Robert James Shuttleworth, a British-born botanist who lived in Switzerland and France. Rugel was born…

Marvin T. Runyon, past president of Nissan, U.S.A., chairman of the board of Tennessee Valley Authority, and postmaster general, was born in Ft. Worth, Texas, on September 16, 1924. He did not become a Tennessean until 1980, but in the…

The Rural African American Church Project seeks to identify and document historic African American churches located in rural areas throughout Tennessee. Administered by the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University, the program began in 1997 as a…

The Ruskin Cooperative Association (RCA) existed in Dickson County from 1894 until 1899. Established at Tennessee City, the colony soon moved five miles away to a site by a large cave on Yellow Creek which still bears the name Ruskin.…

Born August 27, 1906, and raised in Wartrace, Tennessee, Fred McFerrin Russell was known to thousands of readers for his “Sidelines” column in the Nashville Banner. Russell first entered Tennessee sports pages, however, as an athlete. He came to Nashville…

Created in 1803, Rutherford County came from sections of Davidson, Wilson, Williamson, and Sumner Counties and is named in honor of Griffith Rutherford, an Irish immigrant who served on the council of the Southwest Territory. The county's 619 square miles…

Griffith Rutherford was born in Ireland in 1720. Soon after his birth his parents took voyage to America. Unfortunately, both of his parents died at sea, and Griffith arrived in America a homeless orphan. It is thought that he lived…

Governor Thomas C. Rye was born in a log cabin in 1863 to Wayne and Elizabeth Atchison Rye of Benton County. Growing up on his father's farm, he attended county public schools. After studying law in Charlotte, North Carolina, he…

Built as the Union Gospel Tabernacle between 1888 and 1892, Nashville's Ryman Auditorium gained international renown from 1943 to 1974 as home to the Grand Ole Opry, the premier live country music radio broadcast of Nashville station WSM. It is…

James M. Safford was a geologist, chemist, and professor in Tennessee from 1848-1900. Originally, his highest qualification was training in the famous chemistry lab at Yale, but his fame is from geology. Safford was a professor at Cumberland University from…

In 1792, according to tradition, a North Carolina Revolutionary War veteran named Andrew Kennedy settled with his family on a parcel of land along Little River near Maryville in Blount County. Sometime after his arrival in Tennessee, probably in 1794,…