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      • Natural History
      • First Peoples
      • Forging a Nation
      • The Civil War and Reconstruction
      • Change and Challenge
      • Tennessee Transforms
    • Temporary Exhibitions
      • A Better Life for Their Children (Opens Feb. 24, 2023)
      • STARS: Elementary Visual Art Exhibition 2023
      • Early Expressions: Art in Tennessee Before 1900
      • In Search of the New: Art in Tennessee Since 1900
      • Why Do Museums Collect
    • Online Exhibitions
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Ratified! Statewide!
      • Canvassing Tennessee: Artists and Their Environments
    • Past Exhibitions
      • Painting the Smokies
      • Tennessee at 225
      • Best of Tennessee Craft
      • Ratified! Tennessee Women and the Right to Vote
      • Tennessee and the Great War: A Centennial Exhibition
      • STARS: Elementary Art Exhibition 2022
      • Cordell Hull: Tennessee's Father of the United Nations
      • Lets Eat! Origins and Evolutions of Tennessee Food
      • The State of Sound: Tennessee’s Musical Heritage
      • Red Grooms: A Retrospective
      • Between The Layers: Art and Story in Tennessee Quilts
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      • Daily Life on the Tennessee Frontier
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      • The Life of a Civil War Soldier
      • The Lives of Three Tennessee Slaves and Their Journey Towards Freedom
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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!


 

5-19-20

Marathon Motor Works: The First Cars Made in Tennessee

by Christopher Grisham                                                                

In 1913, the first transcontinental highway across the entire United States was finished. They named it the Lincoln Highway and it went from New York City to San Francisco.  A sudden boom in people buying a new invention called the “automobile” made highways more important than ever. Henry Ford introduced the famous Model T car 5 years earlier; however, did you know cars were being made in Tennessee as early as 1906?


1913 Saturday Evening Post ad for Marathon Motor Works from  the collection of the Tennessee State Museum.

1913 Saturday Evening Post ad for Marathon Motor Works from  the collection of the Tennessee State Museum.


It was in this year that Marathon Motor Works started making cars in Jackson, Tennessee. Originally, the cars were called “Southerns” after the company’s first name, Southern Engine and Boiler Works. It turns out there was already a car named Southern. They decided to change the name of the business to Marathon Motor Works, and then the cars became known as “Marathons.” The owners chose this name because the Olympics had just happened in 1904, and anything Greek was very popular. Marathon is not only the name of a city in Greece; it is also the name of an event in the Olympics.

The factory made 600 cars in 1910, but they didn’t just make the cars, they also made all the car parts. That allowed them to have total control over the quality of the cars. 

The next year, Marathon moved the factory to Nashville and expanded the business. The factory was making 200 cars a month in twelve different styles, by 1913, when the Lincoln Highway was finished. There were Marathon dealerships in cities all across the country, but due to poor company leadership, Marathon Motor Works stopped production in 1914. 

Today, as few as nine Marathon cars still exist. Four of them can be found in the original factory building that still stands in Nashville, which is home to the antique store, Antique Archaeology. Learn more at www.marathonvillage.net.


Marathon Motor car on display at the Tennessee State Museum.

Marathon Motor car formerly on display at the Tennessee State Museum


 

Transcontinental – something that crosses a continent; in the United States something that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Boom – rapid growth

Antique – an object that is a collectible because of its age

How long did Marathon Motor Works produce cars?

 

Look carefully at the Marathon car in the picture. How is it similar to your family’s car?

 

How is it different?

 

Why would highways become more important after cars like the Model T and Marathons were introduced?

 

What advantages would Marathon Motor Works have by moving their factory to Nashville instead of Jackson?

 

Standards:

5.01 - Explain the need for the South’s move toward industrialization after the Civil War.

https://www.marathonvillage.net/

https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/marathon-motor-works/

https://tnmuseum.org/permanent-exhibits/exhibits/changeandchallenge

 

Christopher Grisham is the K-12 Education Manager at the Tennessee State Museum.

 

Posted by Katie Yenna at 08:00
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