Through its popular annual luncheon, the Knoxville History Project recognizes local historians who through research, public programs and published books and articles, have increased our collective knowledge of and appreciation for the city’s past.
Known as the William Rule Award for Lifetime Achievement in Knoxville History, this recognition also honors the legacy of Captain William Rule, a major figure in the city’s history. Rule was a Civil War veteran, a longtime newspaper publisher, a two-time Knoxville mayor, and the author of the city’s first substantial history of the city: The Standard History of Knoxville, published in 1900.
On Wednesday, June 25, this year, KHP will honor Dr. Susan Knowles, an independent curator, art historian, public historian, and leading authority on Tennessee marble. During her tenure at the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University, Knowles and her team researched and successfully secured a multiple-property nomination on the regional marble industry, as well as site-specific nominations for two South Knoxville quarries, Mead’s and Ross Marble, to the National Register of Historic Places. Her doctoral dissertation formed the basis of “Rock of Ages: East Tennessee’s Marble Industry,” a popular exhibition at the East Tennessee History Center in 2016. She has continued to publish further research on Tennessee marble in the Journal of East Tennessee History and the Knoxville Museum of Art’s comprehensive catalogue: Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in East Tennessee.
Professional film archivists Bradley Reeves and Louisa Trott, who co-founded the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image & Sound, were our inaugural honorees in 2017. Through his passion for old-time music and vintage films and photography, Reeves continues to enliven the local scene with his fascinating online Smoky Mountain Radio & Archives. His research for the CD box set, Arthur Q. Smith: The Trouble for the Truth, was nominated for a Grammy, and he recently guest-curated an exhibit on Carl and Pearl Butler at the history center. Trott continues to serve as an associate professor at the University of Tennessee Hodges Library.
Upon his retirement, Steve Cotham, the long-tenured manager of the McClung Historical Collection was honored in 2022. During his career he greatly expanded the archive, introducing a digital catalogue, enhancing its art collection, and raising its profile as the region’s most valuable research and genealogical library. Cotham is the author of a popular photographic book, The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and he is currently working on a new book about artists in the Smokies.
Professor Fred Moffatt was recognized for his contributions in the realm of art history. He contributed a chapter on local art for the standard reference book, Heart of the Valley (ETHS, 1976) and has written exhibition catalogues for KMA. His recent books include, The Life, Art, and Times of Joseph Delaney, 1904-1991 – who, along with his more famous brother, Beauford, is now regarded as one of the city’s most talented artists; and Paintbrush for Hire: The Travels of James and Emma Cameron, 1840-1900, about the painter of “Belle Isle from Lyons View” (1859), a central work in KMA’s permanent collection.
We regret that we have lost several past honorees, including most recently, W.R. “Sandy” McNabb (1938-2025). As the former director of the Dulin Gallery of Art, McNabb became a scholar of both the art and architecture of his hometown. After leading a worthy but unsuccessful effort to save an early architectural landmark, the 1812 Strong Home, from highway construction, he co-founded Knoxville’s first sustained preservationist organization, now known as Knox Heritage, which succeeded in saving the Bijou Theatre. He contributed the essay “Architecture,” in Heart of the Valley, but his large-form hardback, Tradition, Innovation & Romantic Images: The Architecture of Historic Knoxville, remains the best-known book about the city’s architectural history.
Bob Booker (1935-2024), a founding board member for KHP, remains, after his death, a revered historian of African American history, even making history himself along the way. He grew up in the “Bottom” area of East Knoxville (where the new baseball stadium is today), studied at Knoxville College where he played a central role in Knoxville’s Civil Rights movement during the 1960s. He became Knoxville’s first Black Tennessee State Representative, served on Knoxville City Council, and ran the Beck Cultural Exchange Center for 11 years. Over the years, he wrote hundreds of newspaper columns and several books, including An Encyclopedia: Experiences of Black People in Knoxville, 1844-1974, Two Hundred Years of Black Culture in Knoxville: 1791 to 1991, and an autobiography, From the Bottom Up.
Dr. Bruce Wheeler (1939-2023), a highly popular and respected UT historian, began teaching American history at UT in 1970. For decades he was widely known for his charismatic talks on and off campus and became the historian of choice for Leadership Knoxville. His book, Knoxville, Tennessee: A Mountain City in the New South (originally co-authored with Michael MacDonald in 1983), went through three editions.
Dr. Jim Tumblin (1926-2020) was honored just a few months before he passed away. Author of a long-standing history column, “History and Mysteries,” in the Shopper News, Dr. Tumblin oftenfocused on the community in which he lived: Fountain City. He turned some of those articles into a book: Fountain City: People Who Made a Difference, which features biographies of Fountain Citians including environmentalist Harvey Broome; Smoky Mountains hiker and advocate, Carlos Campbell; and fiddler Roy Acuff, a major figure in country music.
Dr. Charles Faulkner (1937-2022) and Terry Faulkner often worked together as a husband-and-wife team on challenging archeological projects over the years, combining in-depth research to shine new light on old Knoxville stories, including James White’s forgotten final home; Blount Mansion’s complicated legacy; the tragedy at Cavett Station; the architectural landmark Ramsey House; and most recently, Fort Sanders, the Civil War battlefield that became a lively suburb. Dr. Faulkner died a year after he was honored.
ABOUT KHP
The nonprofit Knoxville History Project tells the city’s stories, focusing on those that have not been previously told and those that connect the city to the world. This year’s annual luncheon will be on Wednesday, June 25 at the Mill & Mine. Donations to support our work, as well as honor the ongoing legacies of our often-unsung historians, are encouraged and appreciated. Learn more at Knoxvillehistoryproject.org/annual-luncheon/