New: Misbehaving Women

The struggle for women’s right to vote spans over 70 years and culminates in the passage of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920. The national movement couldn’t succeed without work at the local level, and in Knoxville women have a proud heritage of misbehaving in the cause of justice. Meet the stalwarts of suffrage who began by refusing to lower their heads and accept the status quo and ended by changing history. Details & Tickets

Early Years

A great place to start. Step back over two centuries and visit Knoxville's founders as you listen to the stories of the settlement of White's Fort and establishment of the capital of the Southwest Territory at the headwaters of the Tennessee. Details & Tickets

Civil War

Walk the streets of a city torn by divided loyalties and then get an overview of the fighting from Gallows Hill. Spies, bridge burners, miracle shots, betrayal, and battle. Details & Tickets

Black History

Leaders, Writers, and Artists
Stroll the streets that inspired Knoxville’s Black artists, musicians, and writers: Charles Cansler, Cal Johnson, Howard Armstrong (Louie Bluie), Leola Manning, Beauford and Joseph Delaney, and author Nikki Giovanni. Details & Tickets

Knoxville Botanical Garden

Ten years before statehood David Howell planted a garden, establishing a family business that would last over a hundred years. Travel from the frontier to today hearing the story of this historic property in sun and shadow. Proceeds help support the garden. Details & Tickets

Gunslingers

Family feuds and wanted outlaws. You'll relive the days when Knoxville was the wild west and Gay Street was the OK Corral. Family feuds, love triangles, post-war animosities, and duels in the street! Details & Tickets

Musical History

The Knoxville story has always been set to music, from the time when the poetic rhythms of the native Cherokee tribes still echoed in the hills and the ballads of the Scots-Irish settlers were sung around campfires on the riverbanks. Immigrants from all over the world brought new instruments and tunes to enliven the song and make Knoxville home to musicians of every genre. Details & Tickets

Old Gray Cemetery

Just north of downtown Knoxville, Old Gray Cemetery is a little-known historic jewel. Founded in 1850 as part of the rural park cemetery movement, it became a popular destination for carriage rides and picnics. 1860-1910, when most of the graves were dug, were some of the most violent decades of Knoxville’s history, as well as the heyday of the local marble industry, when the fashion for elaborate monuments and statuary was at its zenith. Details & Tickets

Literary Heritage

Home of Cormac McCarthy, Nikki Giovanni, James Agee, and more. You'll visit the scenes that inspired them and walk in the footsteps of their characters. Details & Tickets

Ghost Tours

Shadow Side Ghost Tour

Brave souls who enjoy a chill can join us for a trip into Knoxville's shadow side. The city's history of blood-stained streets echoing with gunfire is full of restless spirits. Visit their haunts and hear local legends of ghostly apparitions. Details & Tickets

Shadow Side 2: Ghosts of the Old City

Red Summer, drunken brawls, hot lead, and blood on the tracks. Knoxville's Old City used to be known as the bowery, where victims of murderous brawls, dealdly shoot-outs, and horrific train crashes haunt the old buildings and back alleys along with the ghost of a musician who hasn't quite faded away. Details & Tickets

New! - Side Street Shadows Ghost Tour

Hear more tales of ghostly history as you follow storyteller Laura Still on the Side Street Shadows tour. Find out who haunts the Farragut, how a gunfight on Cumberland nearly started a war, and where you might meet the courteous spirit of a scholar or the grumpy ghost of a violent rebel. Details & Tickets