Who: East Tennessee Historical Society
What: Exhibit--Windows on the Past: The Cultural Heritage of Vardy, Hancock County, Tennessee
When: February 13-March 26, 2006
Where: East Tennessee History Center
601 S. Gay St.
Knoxville, Tennessee
865-215-8824
An exhibit of photographs illustrating Melungeon daily life at the Vardy church and school in rural Hancock County will be at the East Tennessee History Center, February 13-March 26.
Established in 1899 by the Northern Presbyterians, the school and church were a source of community pride and provided education for the Melungeon population around Newman's Ridge until the 1970s. Often dark-skinned and believed to be of an ethnically mixed ancestry of mysterious origins, the Melungeons were centered in northeast Tennessee, southwest Virginia, and eastern Kentucky.
DruAnna Overbay and other former students of the Vardy School will present a special panel discussion at 2 p.m., March 12 and will discuss their remembrances of growing up in Vardy and attending the school there.
Curator for the exhibit is DruAnna Overbay, a direct descendant of Vardemon Collins, the early settler for whom Vardy is named and the recognized patriarch of the Newman's Ridge Melungeons. She is the author of a book based on the Vardy photographs and her remembrances of growing up in this distinctive mountain community. Windows on the Past is presented by the East Tennessee Historical Society.
Both the exhibit and the lecture are the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street in downtown Knoxville, across from the Tennessee Theatre. For more information, contact the East Tennessee Historical Society at 865-215-8824.
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