The William Orland Garner Collection
The
William Orland Garner Collection depicts people, homes, recreational activities, and scenery of Maryville, Tennessee in the 1890s. Created by an amateur photographer with an eye for detail, these photographs represent a broad range of economic, social, and racial groups in an essentially agrarian culture. Of special interest are the images of the Freedman's Normal Institute, a teaching institution for African-American teachers. This highly regarded institute influenced lives of individuals throughout the southern United States.
The Historic Survey of Blount County Architecture
The Tennessee Historical Commission conducted an architectural survey in 1983 of over 4,600 Blount County buildings that were over 50 years old (dating from 1800 to 1930). These images represent a wide variety of building types, such as stone structures, log houses, wooden-frame churches, and brick schoolhouses. A selection of 94 images, representative of the larger collection,
is available now.