In celebration of the holiday season, Metro Archives is featuring the Jo Ann Connor Collection in our latest exhibit. The collection consists of Christmas cards that Jo Ann received from various U.S. presidents over the years, following her husband's MIA status during the Vietnam War. The cards span from President Nixon to President Obama. Here's the story behind how she received the cards, and how they ended up in our repository!

During the Main Library's closure, I'm delving into the Fire Dept. Collection, which includes fascinating fire log books. As I sift through these records, I'm uncovering that they reveal much more than just fire runs and hall operations—they are a treasure trove of important Nashville history. 

The tale of the first flight around the globe is filled with engaging and often eye-opening anecdotes. While we've included some in the exhibit at Metro Archives (on display until the beginning of October), there are plenty more to explore! Read a selection of them here.

Didn't attend Metro Archives opening program for their current aviation exhibit? No worries, check out the recording of the program here! The exhibit is "Nashville's Magellan of the Air: 100th Anniversary of the First Flight to Circumnavigate the World". It runs through October 7th, 2024. 

Metro Archives' Fall Intern, Jamie Erwin, had the pleasure of processing a unique collection for her internship - the "Dr. Ray C. Bunch Collection". If we have any other doctors' collections in our repository, it wouldn't be as thorough and informative as this one. But I'll allow Jamie to tell you about Dr. Bunch and his family in her own words. 

Most people don't want to look at their own school yearbooks, but are happy to browse through others to find friends and family. For that simply reason, the Yearbook Collection in Metro Archives is one of the most popular requests, and thanks to Archives Associate Darnetha, they are now more organized and accessible! 

July 12th of this year marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most devastating events to occur in the archives' world - the fire that broke out at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. If you're not familiar with this event, check out this post that discusses what happened and how the records in Metro Archives help make up for the damaged records. 

If you're dreaming of a white Christmas this year, you might get your wish. In Nashville? Yes! How common is that? Not very, according to our weather reports and news clippings. But here are the highlights from the few times it has occurred. 

I originally wrote this blog post for March, 2018, because for some unknown reason, genealogy research seems to pick up around the end of February through March. Well, the trend has occurred again during quarantine, and this time makes more sense - you're home and you figure, why not? For whatever reason, we welcome the frequency of usage of our genealogy records. Here's a list of our most helpful and commonly-used materials, and some other tips when doing family research, with a few new additions. UPDATED AGAIN IN 2022 WITH THE ADDITION OF ANCESTRY LIBRARY EDITION TO THE LIBRARY WEBSITE!

The semester is soon to wrap up, so Metro Archives is bringing you another cool blog post from our fall intern, Morgan Stence. Morgan processed the Scarritt Bennett Collection, primarily containing materials from the Celebration of Cultures Festival. Learn about it from her own words. 

October is Archives' Month - a month-long celebration of archivists and archival work. And this year's theme is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fire Prevention Week. So "We didn't Start the Fire!", but we're helping prevent future ones from happening!

One of the many services Metro Archives offers is property research, which can be a complicated process, so this blog post is here to provide some clarity of what's involved and how you can start the research on your own! And no, we can't tell you if your home is haunted, sorry. 

This edition of the Metro Archives' intern blog post series comes to you from summer intern, Sabrina Austin, who processed the Genevieve Baird Farris Collection for her internship project. While processing, Sabrina learned about the strong affection the Harris family had for each other, as well as how active they were in Nashville social life. Learn about them from Sabrina herself!

The third week of June marks "Lightning Safety Awareness Week", and we just so happen to be transcribing more weather journals right now thanks to volunteers, so here are some excerpts from these journals that highlight some of the various "electrical events" in Nashville's past. 

This blog post comes to you from Metro Archives' intern, Sami Olesen, who processed the Bernard Sanderson Collection for her internship project. While processing the collection, she learned that Bernard Sanderson led quite an eventful life. But don't listen to me - let Sami tell you his story. 

On Friday, April 1st, 2022, the 1950 U.S. Census records were released, and that provides a lot of new information for anyone researching their family. This set came with some new ways to search as well, which also comes with some bumps in the road, so here are some helpful tips of how to conduct your research. 

March is the month that we celebrate Women's History Month, and this post is dedicated to a few of the organizations in the city that helped the advancement of women's rights. 

Archives staff member Morgan recently completed a project of transcribing the Nashville City Board of Health Minutes from 1900-1908. From reading the minutes, she was able to take a peek into Nashville’s past and see how the city dealt with a smallpox outbreak over 100 years ago.

Of the various projects that we work on in Metro Archives, the Nashville Enslaved and Free People of Color Database is one we started several years ago, and are still actively adding to. If you're interested in learning more about what the database includes and how to use it, please read on. 

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the founding of Nashville's oldest continuously-operated public cemetery - the Nashville City Cemetery. Nestled quaintly on the northeast side of Fort Negley and just off 4th Ave S, the cemetery might seem like only a quiet piece of Nashville's history, with only the graves of many Nashvillians. But if it could speak, it would have many interesting anecdotes to tell.

Bookstores tend to be a popular shopping spot during the holidays, especially some of our local businesses such as Parnassus and Elder's Bookstore. But has that ever made you curious about the history of Nashville's local bookstores? Archives' Intern Sapphire is here to fill you in on a little literary history. 

Nashville is not a city that lacks in stories of feuds and strange murder cases, and I'm bringing you another one just in time for Halloween. It involves a business rivalry gone bad, from our recently-indexed Criminal Court Case Files.   

October is not only the month of pumpkin spice, ghosts, and candy corn...it's also Archives' Month! That means it's the month that we honor the work of all archivists, and work to raise awareness of the importance of historical documents and records. So, in celebration of this fun-filled month, here's a little behind-the-scenes peak at Metro Archives and their staff.