Dr. Chris Magra, Early American history scholar, award-winning author, and University of Tennessee Professor since 2010, added a life-enriching role in 2022. As Director of the Center for the Study of Tennesseans and War, he and his staff endeavor to remember and honor Tennessee veterans.
What is the Center’s work?
Our mission is to research, preserve, and share the stories of Tennesseans serving in wars since the 1700s to present day. Relationships have developed with veterans and their families who donate letters, uniforms, flags, service records, photos and other memorabilia. As part of the flagship University of the state, we want to be the go-to resource for Tennessee’s military history. The Center has become a researcher’s resource in Tennessee military history. All of the work of the Center is privately funded. Many of our veterans’ families choose to donate in gratitude.
How is the work accomplished?
The Center opened within the UT history department in 1983 to record oral histories of WWII veterans. When I became director in 2022, I narrowed our focus to Tennessee veterans, but expanded the research and archiving to all wars since the 1700s. We have a small staff (less than 20 and none full time) with one Ph.D. candidate research assistant, some undergraduate history majors we employ, and an undergraduate internship program which gives our history majors valuable job experience in public history careers (museums, library archives, and battlefields, etc.).
Our interns are from all over the state and help retrieve stories from throughout Tennessee. Some have family members or friends who are veterans. We sit down and interview veterans to record their experiences. For wars with no living members, our team does archival research. The findings are often extraordinary. One of our interns, himself a guardsman, discovered there are six Tennessee National Guardsmen who have won the Medal of Honor.
The Center has a growing archive that is professionally managed by UT Library staff. We’re building a broad repository of military memorabilia. We even have a plane that’s been disassembled in the warehouse.
How does the public learn more?
Our website is the chief access point for the public. We also promote our work and solicit stories through our YouTube channel and Social Media platforms. Many interviews are on cassette tapes (some four or five hours long) which we’re digitizing to post on YouTube. We’re digitizing all collections so they are open, free, and accessible to anyone in the world. These stories don’t do anybody any good sitting in a filing cabinet.
We also present at events at community organizations. I am a regular speaker at Rotary Clubs and Daughters of the American Revolution chapters. We have a working relationship with the East Tennessee History Center where I present programs and we partner with nonprofits like the Veterans Heritage Site Foundation–a wonderful group that does Wreaths Across America in Tennessee.
Word of mouth is strong for us. Family members who find items and don’t know what to do with them, but want them preserved, reach out to us. In Panera recently, a gentleman overheard my conversation and volunteered his family’s letters from World War II.
How does the work impact your team?
None of us are devoted full time to this, but we pour a lot of ourselves into the work. It feeds our souls. Too often I hear: ‘I didn’t do anything important. My story doesn’t matter. You don’t want to hear what I have to say.’ I always tell that veteran, ‘Your serving, your story, whatever your military service, has value and matters to the country you served.’
I love interviewing our veterans: WWII veterans (at this point in time, especially powerful), Vietnam vets, Gulf War and War on Terror vets, and people who were part of the Cold War. As a professional historian, my work is centered on the American Revolution, and because I can’t talk to those who served in that war, I often think, if I could just ask them this. It’s a privilege to get the opportunity to speak with veterans. If I have a question about a particular battle–interviewing someone who was there and lived it is an irreplaceable resource.
My father and brother were veterans. I have a heart for veterans and believe they are an underserved population. We can do more as a country. One of the things I can do, as a trained historian, is to honor them by researching and preserving their stories. More than a job, it’s a way I can give back to our veteran community in gratitude for their service.
To donate materials for archives, schedule interviews, or donate to help fund the Center,
visit Cstw.Utk.edu or email cmagra@utk.edu
Sharp’s Ridge Veterans Memorial Park
Trail Head Wall Boards
Marilyn Childress, a veteran and president of the Knoxville-based Veterans Heritage Site Foundation, approached Dr. Magra to partner on an installation at Sharp’s Ridge Veterans Memorial Park. The site was set aside in 1953 to honor veterans, but there was no information inside the park about Tennessee veterans. The Center researched wars from the Civil War to present day to create eight information wall boards about each war and the Tennesseans who served. “Along with photos and narratives, a QR code links to the Center’s website which lets the public access our archives,” Dr. Magra explains. “We fully funded the project and worked with a local sign company who produced state park-quality signage, now installed at the trail heads for hikers and bikers. For the first time in 71 years, the 150-acre memorial park actually honors veterans. At the dedication ceremony last August, living veterans featured on those wall boards brought family and friends to celebrate. It was a joyous occasion, but very emotional for those veterans to know that their stories matter, an outcome which is intrinsic to the mission of the Center.” Visit Cstw.utk.edu/sharps-ridge-veterans-memorial-park/
Veterans featured on those wall boards brought family and friends to the dedication ceremony. It was a joyous occasion, but very emotional for those veterans to know their stories matter.