From

 the

Director
          Dr. Lisa Pruitt

We welcome two new graduate assistants to the Gore Center this fall:  Heather Bailey and Kevin Cason.  Please take a moment to read their biographies in this newsletter.  Each has already embarked on a major project.  Heather is revising the collection guide for the Homer and Mabel Pittard Collection.  Kevin is processing the Gene Sloan collection.

Betty Rowland continues to conduct oral history interviews with veterans of World War II.  That collection has grown to nearly 60 interviews.  To assist in recruiting participants in that project, I spoke on Saturday, September 14, to the WAVES National Volunteer Unit #94.  This organization is the Middle Tennessee branch of a national service organization for women veterans of the sea services. 

Another important project is being carried out in conjunction with the library at UT-Knoxville.  They received a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to create a digital library of the history of Tennessee.  Currently, they are working on the period from 1796 to 1850.  A representative for the project visited the Gore Center to exam the James Moore King Collection, which documents Rutherford County in the early 19th century.  He selected 52 letters from that collection for inclusion in the digital library.  The graduate assistants have taken charge of supervising the digitization of those letters.

During the summer of 2002, graduate student Nancy Morgan created a photographic and documentary exhibit tracing the history of the June Anderson Women’s Center.  The Center’s 25th anniversary celebration was held in conjunction with Founder’s Day on September 6.  The exhibit was mounted in the lobby of the James Union Building, where it was available for viewing by approximately 100 guests at the Center’s 25th anniversary luncheon.

Continue to watch for new and exciting developments at the Gore Center in 2002-2003!

Back to Newsletter