Your Source for Tennessee History
The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture is a free, online reference source from the Tennessee Historical Society. Unlike crowd-sourced sites, with anonymous contributors and often suspect content, Tennessee Encyclopedia entries are reviewed by editor-in-chief and State Historian Carroll Van West, PhD, and authors of the entries are identified. The website is presented in partnership with the University of Tennessee Press.
The Tennessee Encyclopedia first appeared in print in 1998 and has been on-line since 2002. Containing approximately 2,000 entries on all aspects of Tennessee history, by almost 600 authors, The Tennessee Encyclopedia, Version 3.0 launched in April 2018. Look for updated entries and new content in the months to come.
The content of The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture is copyrighted by the Tennessee Historical Society, unless otherwise noted. For information on permission for use or for questions regarding The Tennessee Encyclopedia, use the Contact section at the bottom of this page. The Tennessee Historical Society thanks the Frist Foundation’s Technology Grant program for funding support of the Version 3.0’s design and content-management software platform.
Functionality and information at The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture are in compliance with guidelines established by the American Association for State and Local History for online state and regional encyclopedias.
