Tennessee State Museum - First Peoples

Our students are studying American History this year, so we are visiting the TN State Museum to learn about the first people who inhabited the land here.    Their educators will lead us on a guided tour of some of the museum.   You will also have time to explore more of the museum on your own.   You can also walk over to the Farmers Market next door for lunch or bring a picnic to enjoy.    

This event is for all ages K-12.   We will group up by age and rotate through so the students receive a presentation appropriate for their age group.

First Peoples 

Who were the first people to live in the land we now call Tennessee? What were their lives like? Join us as we explore the prehistoric Native American artifacts in our collection and learn how these objects tell us about our state’s past. We will cover Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods.

Highlights include: A mastodon tusk, an Archaic nutting stone, a Mississippian moccasin, a Human effigy statue, a dugout canoe

 Becoming Tennessee  

How did Tennessee go from a sparsely populated frontier to an American state that produced three U.S. presidents? Told through the perspectives of Native American tribes, enslaved African Americans, and white settlers, follow us from the early attempts to become a state to the “Age of Jackson.”

Highlights include: Conestoga Wagon, John Sevier’s watch, Richard Poyner chair, Chickasaw crafted moccasins