TSLAFriends 2026 Virtual Meeting Featuring Dr. Aaron Astor (21 Oct 2026)

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 23:00:00 GMT

Join the Tennessee State Library & Archives Friends for its Annual Digital Meeting, featuring historian Dr. Aaron Astor, the Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies at Gettysburg College.

In his presentation, “Why Tennessee Matters in the America 250 Story,” Astor will explore the important role Tennessee and its people played in the founding and early development of the United States. From the Chickamauga Wars and the Watauga settlements to the Battle of Kings Mountain, he will examine how the region that became the 16th state admitted to the Union helped shape the political, military and cultural development of the young nation.

Astor previously served as a professor of history at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. He is the author of Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri, 1860-1872 and The Civil War Along Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. He also co-edited Slavery: Interpreting American History and contributed 11 articles to The New York Times’ award-winning Disunion series.

His scholarship has examined guerrilla warfare, military campaigns in the Western Theater, popular politics, emancipation and race and regional identity in the Appalachian South. He is currently working on a book that explores the 1860 presidential election as a grassroots political phenomenon through the experiences of four distinct American communities.

Astor earned his doctorate in history from Northwestern University and his bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College.

The Annual Digital Meeting is free and open to everyone. RSVP to receive the link to join the meeting.

Family History Day at TSLA Featuring Dr. Katherine C. Hughes (24 Oct 2026)

Sat, 24 Oct 2026 18:00:00 GMT

In her presentation, “How Can the Records of a Single Family Reveal a Much Larger Story?” Hughes will draw on her research into seven generations of families at Stony Point in East Tennessee to explore how archival records, objects, historic places and genealogy can work together to uncover the stories of our own families. Using Tennessee State Library and Archives records that have played an important role in her own research, she will share practical approaches for following clues, connecting people and places and bringing family stories to life.

Whether you are an experienced genealogist or just beginning to explore your family history, the program will offer new ways to look at the records, objects and places that preserve the stories of past generations.

Hughes is a public historian and preservationist specializing in 18th- and 19th-century Southern material culture and the recovery of marginalized and overlooked histories through objects, architecture and place. She is a lecturer in Interior Design History at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture and recently completed her Ph.D. in Public History at Middle Tennessee State University under Tennessee State Historian Dr. Carroll Van West.

Her previous work includes positions with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Historic Charleston Foundation, the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This program is presented as part of Family History Day at the Tennessee State Library and Archives with support from the Tennessee State Library and Archives Friends.

TSLAFriends upcoming events

TSLAFriends 2026 Virtual Meeting Featuring Dr. Aaron Astor (21 Oct 2026)

Family History Day at TSLA Featuring Dr. Katherine C. Hughes (24 Oct 2026)