Celebrating the Main Library Downtown's 20th anniversary, hear from some of the Library staff that were here when the new building opened. 

Can you believe it?! The downtown library has called Church Street home for 20 years now! Let's take a look back at the history of the downtown library, and how it came to call 615 Church Street home. 

The world lost an extraordinary woman on April 22nd, 2021, when former State Senator Thelma Harper passed away. After making history by becoming the first African American female elected to the State Senate, her work of shattering ceilings was far from over. Here's a look back at her impressive career and generous life. 

Keeping the streets, rivers, and neighborhoods clean in this city over the years hasn't been easy, but one of the ways was with the City Beautiful Commission, that was established in 1953. In honor of Earth Day, here's a look at the commission that helped clean up the streets and neighborhoods in Nashville. 

In this month of celebrating women's history, here's part III in the series honoring the work of several Nashville women. 

In honor of African American History Month, a look back at a business that made quite an impact on the building of Nashville over the last 100 years - McKissack & McKissack Architectural Firm.

This is part II in the series on the history of 2nd Ave. I ended the first part at the end of the 19th century, so this is where part II picks up - right when Market Street becomes 2nd Ave.

2020 went out with an unfortunate bang in Nashville, when on Christmas morning, a Nashville resident blew up his RV on 2nd Ave N. As a dedication to the individuals and businesses impacted, here's a look back at the history of 2nd Ave. This is 2-part series, part I covering 19th century Market Street and part II covering 20th Century 2nd Ave.  

Most citizens of this city that have lived here for a few years know what I'm referring to when I say the "Edgehill Polar Bears", but do you know the history of them? Well here are the "bear" necessities.

The phrase "voting rights" encompasses a LOT of history, even when narrowed to the history of voting rights in Tennessee. While I wish I could write a blog post that includes all the important gains and struggles of voting rights in this state, instead, I'm narrowing it to a few highlights, starting with noting the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment. 

Since most of this year has seemed like an episode out of a sci-fi novel, and it's not lost on anyone that we're living through a major historical event, here are some suggestions of important things you might consider keeping for posterity's sake. 

While September is normally my month for educational posts, I'm bypassing that this year for something different - new images and footage! As a continuation from a previous post with old photos, this post includes a slideshow of a collection I've been processing the past few weeks, plus some new footage from our Audiovisual Heritage Center. 

Part III in the series of "What Have Metro Archives Been Up to During Quarantine." This last part covers Kelli and Carissa's project of creating portable digitization kits. 

Though the outcome for Tennessee was bleak before the battle started, the State surprised everyone by becoming the 36th and final state to ratify the 19th Amendment, 100 years ago. Here's a look back at how it played out... 

Part II in the series of "What Have Metro Archives Been Up to During Quarantine." This time, we're taking a look at Ken and Kelley's projects...and their at-home "coworkers". 

This is part 1 in a series of blog posts about the projects Metro Archives' staff have been working on during quarantine and the important finds we've made, such as a Criminal Court case involving Rep. John Lewis, and unscanned Metro Photographer negatives. 

Part III in the Dury Business and Family blog posts: Christine has translated more pages from Katharina Dury's diary. 

Since we're closed, here's a virtual tour of Metro Archives' current exhibit of "Nashville Voices - 36 Notable Women of Nashville", as it's finished right now. And discussing one of the recently added women in the display - Dr. Josie E. Wells...maybe a couple more individuals as I continue working

This month's Nashville history post is letting photography do the talking, with a variety of slideshows for all to enjoy. Starting with a tribute to all medical workers for their dedicated service during these trying times, to finishing with a little more of "Some Good News - Archives Edition." 

With the extra time on our hands after a month of quarantine, maybe there are other things we can spend our time on, like preserving family ephemera. This is an assisted blog post from my coworker, Christine Irizarry, who writes about the importance of family letters. And the latter part talks about preserving your family records. 

How does a vacation to a far-off destination sound to you? Maybe with a beautiful, sandy beach or a picturesque french countryside; amazing right? And also not physically feasible for most people right now. But that doesn't mean you can't still go to these places, just check out one of these books. 

With the changing times and means to educate while schools are closed, it can be difficult for parents-now-turned-teachers to homeschool on such short notice, and possibly without a lot of resources. That's where Metro Archives and the Library come in handy. And who says educating can't be fun? So here's a word search I created with words and names pertaining to the founding of the city of Nashville. 

Borrowing John Krasinski's idea of reporting "Some Good News" during these troubling times, here are some historic news clippings from past pandemics or epidemics that have affected Nashville. But instead of including news articles about the actual devastation from the illnesses, these are more positive stories during the same time frame or at least examples of positives from the desolation.  

Soooo this year has started off rather interestingly...and by interesting I mean NOT GREAT, so far. So instead of writing a whole bunch of historic info, I'm just giving you all photos this month. These are some of my favorites from our collection that I hope may bring a smile to some of your faces. 

If you weren't able to check out any physical books from the Library before self-isolating at home, or perhaps the one you have hasn't turned out to be very good - don't worry! Here are some recommendations for titles to check out NOW from the Library's Overdrive page.