at the Tennessee Museum
A few years ago, the National Museum of
American History changed the way history
museums present our past with a major
remodel. Using themed exhibits, multimedia,
and programming that provokes thoughtful
public interaction, their goal is to expand visitor’s
understanding of history and explore the good
and the not so wonderful parts of our past.
Tennessee State Museum embraced these
changes in the presentation of history with their
move into their new $167 million building that
was opened last fall.
Time Tunnel of History
The Tennessee Time Tunnel serves as the
backbone for telling the state’s story from its
day. It provides a quick overview of the rich
history of a state whose people have played a
large part in the beginnings, trials, and growth of
this country.
Six permanent galleries expand on various
pieces of Tennessee’s history. These galleries
include Natural History, First Peoples, Forging a
Nation, Civil War and Reconstruction, Change and
Challenge, and Tennessee Transforms.
One of the things that the museum has embraced
in their new space is topics that have often
been avoided because they are hard to present,
including the treatment of indigenous Indian
populations and the 200 years of slavery in this
country.
“We don’t whitewash anything,” said Joseph
Pagetta, Director of Communications for the
museum. “We talk about slavery and the Trail of
Tears. We have a large display on Civil Rights.”
Galleries Merge Static Artifacts
& Visual Presentations
Every gallery begins with a video presentation
that distills the main elements of the section,
then the gallery offers a curated selection of
artifacts offering tangible evidence from the
past, and hands on activities to make learning an
interactive process.
From the fossil history, which includes the skull
of a Mastodon, to clothing worn by Country
Music and sport sensations of modern days, the
museum’s permanent collection is the foundation
of the displays.
The First Peoples display presents the times long
before Europeans set foot in this area, beginning
at the end of the ice age, about 13,000 BCE. One
of the widest ranging indigent cultures was the
Mississippians. They inhabited land from Ohio
along the Mississippi River to most of the Mid-
South.
The exhibit begins with a video presentation
that includes discussions with two modern day
tribal leaders who speak of their forbearers. Both
chieftains examine the interactions between
the various tribes who hunted the southeastern
United States, and how the intrusion of Europeans
changed everything.
Several of the galleries explore the treatment
of African Americans, from the beginnings of
slavery, through the Civil War, and the struggle for
Civil Rights. As Pagetta said above, the museum
does not try to hide slavery, the atrocities of the
Civil War, or the founding of the Klu Klux Klan in
Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865. The Civil War and
Reconstruction gallery begins in 1860 with the
story of what led up to the war, and continues
until the end of the Reconstruction in 1870.
10 Nashville Notes | Fall | thenashvillenotes.com
Tennessee Transforms gallery looks at the
changes in Tennessee history after World War
a placard that says “Honor King: End Racism,”
printed by Allied Printing of Memphis after the
assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis
in 1968.
Stories Are What Tell History
What draws the entire collection together is
the stories shared by those who lived during
the times the museum explores. “History is
made up of stories,” said Pagetta. “Next year
we will be telling the story of how Tennessee
19th Amendment in celebration of the 100th
Anniversary of giving women the vote.”
focused on women receiving the vote, and how
suffrage has effected women’s lives. Discussions
included how the Civil War slowed suffrage, and
how black women’s lives in Memphis in the late
1900s were affected by the movement.
Women’s lives have been explored in other
was of quilts,” said Pagetta. “I was afraid that just
showing a grouping of quilts would be boring, but
it wasn’t because each quilt tells a story. Stories
of the women who made the quilts. Stories of the
life and times in which they lived. We also brought
the pubic into the conversation, asking them to
tell their own stories.”
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