We are hiring! ✨ The Tennessee State Museum continues to evolve as it expands programming, enhances visitor engagement, and deepens its commitment to sharing the history and culture of Tennessee with communities across the state. To support this growing scope of work, the Museum is strengthening its professional team with new positions focused on visual storytelling, site management, creative services, and community engagement.
The expansion includes the following roles:
✨ Graphics Designer
✨ Museum Preparator
✨ Capitol Visitor Services Manager
✨ Volunteer Manager
✨ Collections Photographer
Apply now online at TNMuseum.org/jobs (link in bio).
Have you been in to the Museum to see “Tennessee Voices, American Stories” yet? This new exhibition commemorates #America250 and #TN250 by exploring the remarkable stories of Tennesseans who helped to build our state and nation. You’ll see some familiar faces, and others less-known, each making their own contributions to our shared past.
Now open! "Samplers and Young Women: Threading Together Art and Education," a new temporary exhibit, is on display at the Museum. Samplers are a form of embroidery typically produced by girls and young women as a means of learning needlework, reading, and writing, providing unique insights into women’s education in early Tennessee. They were often signed and dated by their makers, making them a valuable resource for learning about the lives of girls and young women, whose presence may be limited in other historical archives.
"Samplers and Young Women: Threading Together Art and Education" runs through April 2026. Head to the link in our bio to learn more!
Come celebrate Statehood Day! 🧁 For this year’s extended celebration on Saturday, May 30, the Museum is honored to partner with @tnfolklife at the @tennesseeartscommission , featuring artists from the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Now celebrating its ten-year anniversary in 2026, the program has supported over 100 projects and 200 traditional artists across the state working to preserve rare, endangered, and significant Tennessee traditions.
Traditional art forms featured during Statehood Day at the Museum will include buck dancing, Choctaw bead working and basketry, white oak basketry, instrument making, cartonería, flint marble making, ballad singing, coopering, wood carving, blues music, Old Harp singing, Choctaw social dancing, quilting, Kurdish traditional music, net making, hat making, string band music, Memphis Jookin, broom making, seed saving and agricultural folkways, and Stump Jumper boat making.
✨ See the link in our bio for for a list of artists and full schedule!
The Tennessee State Museum is saddened to hear of the passing of Bets Ramsey, an accomplished fiber artist, author, curator, and quilt historian. Ramsey supported the State Museum in several projects throughout her career, including her work as a scholar for the 2019 "Between the Layers: Art and Story in Tennessee Quilts" exhibition. An outstanding textile artist, several works by Ramsey are in the State Museum’s collection.
Bets Ramsey and Merikay Waldvogel also studied several quilts in the State Museum’s collection as part of their Quilts of Tennessee documentation project, a survey of Tennessee quilts conducted from 1983-1987. The project, which was the state’s first quilt survey, resulted in a travelling exhibit and the publication "The Quilts of Tennessee: Images of Domestic Life Prior to 1930," which continues to serve as study of regional quilting traditions across the state.
Betty “Bets” Ramsey was born in Chattanooga in 1923 and received a B.A. in Art from the University of Chattanooga and a M.S. in Craft from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 1974, she began teaching quilt making classes at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga. There, she organized the annual Southern Quilt Symposium (1974–1991). From 1980-1998, she also contributed to "The Chattanooga Times," writing approximately 850 articles for her weekly column, “The Quilter.” Ramsey was a founding member of the Tennessee Association of Craft Artists and the American Quilt Study Group (AQSG). She served on the AQSG board of directors from 1983 to 1989 and was a frequent contributor to the annual publication, "Uncoverings." Ramsey was the 2005 Honoree of the Quilter's Hall of Fame and received the Tennessee Governor's Award in the Arts in 2009.
Join us for our next free Lunch and Learn on Thursday, May 21 on "Interpreting the American Revolution from Native Country: The View from Trans-Appalachia, 1763-1783." As we mark the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, Dr. Kristofer Ray will examine how dominant narratives of the American Revolution have shaped popular understanding while reducing Native peoples to collateral damage. Focusing on 1763–1783, Ray explores Indigenous perspectives on trans-Appalachian affairs and reexamines George Rogers Clark’s campaigns, asking two critical questions: How did the Revolution impact Native Nations—and how did Native Nations influence the Revolution?
Learn more and RSVP 🎟️ at the link in our bio!
Come along as we travel along the "Tennessee Voices, American Stories 95 Counties Road Trip" online interactive map! 🚗✨ Let's head to Coffee County next, where about two thousand years ago, Native American communities were active at present-day @old_stone_fort_state_park . Today, visitors can learn more about the area with interpretative panels along the park’s hiking trails.
📸: A large tree found in the Old Sone Fort State Archaeological Area, May 1967. Courtesy @tnlibarchives .
Every county in the state is full of unique stories and history. Explore them all with the "Tennessee Voices, American Stories 95 Counties Road Trip" interactive map 🗺️ at the link in our bio!
On May 10 and 11, the @America250 Our American Story Airstream visited Clarksville and Franklin to record interviews with Tennesseans as part of the national semiquincentennial commemoration. The Airstream also stopped by the Tennessee State Museum, home agency of the Tennessee Commission for the U.S. Semiquincentennial, where it was welcomed by Ashley Howell, Executive Director of the Museum and Chair of the Tennessee Commission for the U.S. Semiquincentennial, and Mark Ezell, Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development (@tnvacation ) and member of the Tennessee Commission for the U.S. Semiquincentennial.
An initiative of the America250 Commission, Our American Story is traveling cross-country this year to record thousands of interviews with Americans, some of which will be archived at @librarycongress . Select stories — especially those featuring veterans, educators, and intergenerational families — will be publicly shared through collaborations with documentary filmmakers, broadcast outlets, and digital platforms. Visit /our-american-story/ for more, including recap videos from previous stops.
The @america250 Our American Story Airstream stopped by the Tennessee State Museum this morning on its way to Franklin! From veterans to educators to intergenerational families, the Airstream is recording thousands of interviews with Americans. See past stops and follow the journey at america250.org/our-american-story.
#America250 #TN250 #Tennessee250 #OurAmericanStory #TennesseeStateMuseum
Happy Mother’s Day! 🧵 This pair of samplers was made by a mother and daughter. Sarah “Salley” Huckstep, the mother, made her sampler as a child in Virginia. Elizabeth Overton Rowe, Huckstep’s daughter, made her sampler after the family had moved to Franklin County, Tennessee.
Rowe completed her sampler several years after her mother died, but Huckstep’s influence is still visible. A striped bird in flight appears on both samplers, showing how Rowe referred to her mother’s sampler while making her own. Compare the two side by side in “Samplers and Young Women: Threading Together Art and Education,” now on display at the Museum through June 28, 2026.
Looking for a fun and educational day out with your homeschoolers? Join us at the Museum for our next free Homeschool Day on May 19! Kids of all ages can experience interactive exhibits, creative crafts, and engaging live history demonstrations. This event will focus on some of the Museum's most popular programming, including costumed Civil War interpreters. It’s a wonderful way to explore Tennessee’s rich history together and discover all the educational resources we offer for homeschool families.
No registration is required. We can’t wait to see you there from 10:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.! Special thanks goes to @advance_financial for their generous support of Homeschool Days at the Museum.
The Museum Store is filled with unique gifts perfect for Mother’s and Father’s Day, from the cookbooks "Carla Hall’s Soul Food" and "Southern Grit" to fragrant bath salts and handcrafted soaps by @musiccitysuds Add bold spice mixes and oil-infusion bottles from @alchemyspicecompany , Tennessee-proud Tri-Star hats and socks, and a fiery whiskey habanero hot sauce from @tnhotsauceco . Shop these selections and more and make Mom and Dad feel extra special! The Museum Store is open the same hours as the Museum.
