EOGN's Announcements

Celebrating “Deely-Bobbers”, Pickle Pins, Petro’s, and the “Chicken Dance”

KNOXVILLE, TN - The East Tennessee Historical Society will take a look back at the 1982 World’s Fair in an exhibition opening next week in downtown Knoxville.  Employing banners, clothing, pins, photos, souvenirs, and other items, the exhibit “When the World Came to Knoxville: Twenty-five Years Later” seeks to capture the flavor and joy of the international event that drew 11 million visitors to Knoxville and left so many with fond memories.

Confederate First Lady Varina Davis to be topic of ETHS Annual Meeting

KNOXVILLE, TN -  Author Joan Cashin will be the keynote speaker for the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Annual Meeting on June 5.  She will discuss her latest book, First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis’s Civil War in which she presents the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis as a woman deeply devoted to her husband, yet openly pessimistic of the chances for Confederate independence.  A woman of strong opinions and a forceful personality, Varina Davis surprised family and friends by moving to New York, following her husband’s death, where she became a successful newspaper writer and a friend of Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant.

“the Motion Picture Films Of Jim Thompson 1915-1950” To Show At The East Tennessee Historical Society

KNOXVILLE, TN (May 15, 2007)  The East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS) in conjunction with Treasures from the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (TAMIS)

invite everyone to attend a special upcoming film series devoted to the historical images and musical legacy of East Tennessee.  Rare home movies, many filmed over 70 years ago, and missing-in-action television programming from the past have been recently transferred and made accessible once again from TAMIS.  The first installment of their 2007 film series, “The Motion Picture Films of Jim Thompson 1915-1950” will be free and open to the public at the East Tennessee History Center at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 25 due to a generous sponsorship from the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority.

Dr. Colin Baxter to Present Brown Bag Lecture

KNOXVILLE, TN (May 2, 2007)  Dr. Colin Baxter, professor of history and chair of the History Department at East Tennessee State University, will present “Eastman Chemical, Kingsport, and RDX: The Explosive that Won World War II” at noon on May 9 at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville. Part of the East Tennessee Historical Society’s Brown Bag Lecture Series, the lecture will look at the World War II contributions of Eastman Chemical and the explosive RDX. Often overlooked as a result of the high-profile nature of Oak Ridge and the atomic bomb, Kingsport and the explosive RDX were just as important to the overall war effort. Dr. Baxter points out that the Holston Ordinance Works, now Eastman Chemical, was the primary production site for RDX, an explosive that ultimately became so vital it was sometimes called “the explosive that won World War II.”

Happy Birthday to Anna Marie Jarvis!

The following was written by www.GenealogyBank.com:

May 1st is her birthday and if she were alive today she would be 143 years old.

Her mother died May 9, 1905 and Anna wanted to remember her. As she thought about it the idea grew and she decided to create a day to remember all mothers.

The first Mother’s Day was held on May 10, 1908 and a few days later the Philadelphia Inquirer printed an article about the huge success of Anna Marie Jarvis’s idea.