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Junior Curators

Each week on the Junior Curators blog, we travel back in time to a different place in Tennessee history. Stories may be about a famous person, place or event from Tennessee’s past. They will include things like priceless artifacts, pictures, videos, and even some games. Be sure to better understand the story by answering the questions at the end of each post.

After learning the story, be sure to share what you've learned with your parents, family, or friends. Try making your own exhibit about it, shooting a movie, or writing a story about it. Let your creativity run wild!

Category: Innovations

4-6-21

First Peoples of Tennessee: How did they hunt?

by Katie Yenna Thousands of years before members of the historic tribes lived in Tennessee, their ancient ancestors lived here. They were strong people who lived through the Ice Age, the extinction of their main food source, and the encroachment of foreign settlers. They also did not have a written language, so what they left behind tells us a story of how they lived, worked, and celebrated their culture. Today, you are going to read about one important part of their life, hunting. The Pale... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 4-6-21
Innovations Prehistoric Tennessee

1-26-21

The Story of Piggly Wiggly: The First Supermarket

by Oliver Arney Have you ever entered a supermarket or a grocery store and been overwhelmed at the selection you can make? The candy aisle alone has hundreds of selections that YOU can pick from. Isn’t that wonderful? Let us take a step back in time and learn how a Tennessean named Clarence Saunders created the first supermarket, Piggly Wiggly. Piggly Wiggly sign today, from pigglywiggly.com. Before we learn about Piggly Wiggly, let us first read about what a grocery store looked... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 1-26-21
Innovations Tennessee in the 20th Century

12-22-20

A Visit to the Print Shop

Happy Holidays from the Tennessee State Museum! This season, join Oliver in our very own print shop and learn more about the printing trade and our working printing press!   Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 12-22-20
Frontier/Before Statehood Innovations

12-10-20

Tennessee Transportation Quiz

by Oliver Arney From canoes and Conestoga wagons, to railroads and interstates, this quiz will travel though Tennessee's transportation history. Made for historians of all ages, this quiz will show off some of the museum's largest and most interesting artifacts. So all aboard, and enjoy your travels through history! Tennessee Transportation Quiz   Oliver Arney is an Educator at the Tennessee State Museum. Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 12-10-20
Innovations

11-17-20

Dots, Dashes, and a Polk

by Christopher Grisham In the early 1800s, the world shrank. Boats and trains became faster with the invention of the steam engine. This allowed people to travel farther than ever before. But the telegraph connected more people than any other invention. The telegraph let people send messages across the entire country by using dots and dashes in place of letters. All you needed was a telegraph machine and a telegraph line. Telegraph 1840-1865, Tennessee State Museum Collection. Sam... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 11-17-20
Innovations Jacksonian Tennessee

10-27-20

The Industrial Revolution Pt. 2: By Land and River

by Joyska Nunez-Medina (Read the first part here if you haven’t already.) Steamboats at the Nashville Dock Downtown, 1863, Photo courtesy of the Tennessee State Museum. Tennessee became a state in 1796. During that time, the world was experiencing big changes. Today we call this time of change the Industrial Revolution. It lasted from the 1700s to the early 1900s. New technologies changed how people lived and worked. Different ways of making items helped people make mon... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 10-27-20
Innovations

7-21-20

Meet me at the Fairy Floss Stand! Tennessee’s Sweet History of Cotton Candy

by Morgan Byrn In 1904, people were introduced to Fairy Floss at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. What is Fairy Floss? That was the original name for cotton candy. So how does all of this relate to Tennessee history? Let us dive into the sweet, sugary past of cotton candy. William Morrison and John C. Wharton lived in Nashville, Tennessee in the late 1800’s. Mr. Morrison was a dentist, and Mr. Wharton was a candy maker. Can you believe that a dentist and a candy maker we... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 7-21-20
Innovations Tennessee in the 20th Century

7-14-20

Maxwell House Coffee and Nashville

Maxwell House Coffee Tin from about 1955-1965 (Tennessee State Museum Collection) by Grace Allen Did you know coffee beans are actually green? They get their brown color from being roasted! As a kid, you may not drink coffee. I bet you know someone that does. Your parents or your teacher may drink it every morning. Today, most of the coffee you see in stores is already roasted and ground. This was not the case before 1900. Most people bought green coffee beans and prepared them at home. ... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 7-14-20
Innovations

7-7-20

What Does a Tennessee Cave Have to Do with Stamps?

by Christopher Grisham If someone tells you that you’ve got mail, most people today think of e-mail. Packages are delivered mostly by FedEx, UPS, or Amazon. To talk to you, your friends may use the phone to call or text you instead of sending a letter. When your parents open the mailbox outside, it is probably full of junk mail and bills. It may seem like it would be easy to live without the Post Office today, but using it is still a great way to commmunicate.  Envelope with st... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 7-7-20
Innovations Jacksonian Tennessee

6-30-20

There’s No Smiling in History: The Invention of Photography

by Morgan Byrn Have you ever looked at an old photograph? As a kid, I thought that the people living in the past must have been grumpy. In those old photographs, people are usually not smiling. This made me think. Did people not smile back then? When we think about photography, we have to go back to the beginning, to 1839. The first photographs were called daguerreotypes (duh, gare, ro, types). At a studio, a photographer would take the person’s picture. The picture was developed on m... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 6-30-20
Innovations

6-4-20

How New Industries Revolutionized Tennessee

by Joyska Nunez-Medina Tennessee became a state in 1796. At this time, the world was seeing big changes. The changes from the late 1700s to the early 1900s are known as the Industrial Revolution. New technologies changed how people lived and worked. Different ways of making items helped people make money. New types of transportation allowed people to move around those items and travel to new places faster. Below are a few things that were important to the growth of Tennessee during the Indus... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 6-4-20
Innovations

5-26-20

Under the Siege: The H.L. Hunley

  by Christopher Grisham You may hear about the use of submarines during World War I, but did you know submarines were used during the Civil War? The first submarine to sink an enemy ship was used by the Confederate Navy. A submarine is a ship designed to operate underwater. The North, or Union, had a bigger and more powerful Navy than the Confederates, or the South. They used it to blockade southern ports; this meant that important supplies could not reach the Confederacy. The Confed... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 5-26-20
Civil War Innovations

5-22-20

Tennessee Toys Through Time Quiz

by Lauren Grizzard What is your favorite toy? Your favorite toy can help people around you learn about what you like. Maybe you have a stuffed animal that is also your favorite animal at the zoo. Or you have a toy car that is the type of car you want to drive one day. Did you know that museums can also use toys to learn about people and their way of life? Today, we want to show you some of the toys in our collection and test your Junior Curator knowledge on the dates they were made! Click th... Read More
Posted by Katie Yenna at 5-22-20
Innovations

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