Home > Uncommon Sense > 122 > Caribbean

• Support the Institute
• About Us
• Conferences
• Colloquium
• Fellowships
• Online Resources
• Tucker Papers
• Prizes
• Publications
• Uncommon Sense
• WMQ
• Join us on

The Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee anticipates with considerable pleasure welcoming readers of Uncommon Sense to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, October 6–8, 2006, for “Warfare and Society in Colonial North America and the Caribbean,” a three-day conference cosponsored by the Center and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

All sessions will take place at the University of Tennessee Conference Center, across from World Fair’s Park, site of the 1982 World’s Fair. The nearby Hilton Hotel will serve as the official conference hotel. Both are conveniently located in downtown Knoxville, where attendees can take advantage of a wide range of restaurants, nightspots, and cultural attractions. The East Tennessee Historical Center, the Knoxville Museum of Art, and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame are all within walking distance. Visitors taking a walking tour of Gay Street, the old downtown thoroughfare, will discover that urban renewal spared Knoxville’s old vaudeville theater, the Bijou, as well as the recently renovated 1930s movie palace, The Tennessee Theater. Both offer an array of cultural attractions throughout the year. Considered one of the birthplaces of country music, Knoxville is also home to one of the oldest symphony orchestras in the South.

Located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, within a day’s drive of a host of cities in the Northeast, Midwest, and Southeast, Knoxville boasts moderate temperatures in early October, and, in contrast to New England, trees that will just be beginning to change into their fall colors. Conference-goers who plan to travel by car could easily incorporate a side trip to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park or Cumberland Gap National Park into their plans. Those who prefer to fly will find that Knoxville’s airport offers direct connections to such metropolitan areas as New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

Founded in 1786 and named after Revolutionary General Henry Knox, Knoxville features several sites of special interest to early American historians. The town served as the first capital of Tennessee and was the home of the state’s first senator, William Blount, whose 1792 residence, located a short distance from the Hilton, is now a museum with an adjoining interpretative center. James White Fort, next to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, features a reconstruction of Knoxville’s first European settlement. On the campus of the University of Tennessee, the Frank H. McClung Museum documents the natural history of the region with a permanent exhibit examining Tennessee’s Native American history. Coinciding with the conference will be a special exhibit at the McClung Museum, “Emissaries of Peace: The 1762 British/Cherokee Delegations.” Designated a “We the People”project by the National Endowment for the Humanities, its major funder, the display exemplifies the history and the spirit of the American people, contrasting eighteenth-century cultural perspectives through the eyes of three Cherokee leaders who visited London and Lt. Henry Timberlake, who visited the Cherokee Overhill towns. The show combines Timberlake’s memoirs and artifacts excavated from Echota that correspond to his descriptions and includes quotes from Cherokee leaders, newspaper accounts of their London visit, and eighteenth-century portraits.

Jonesborough, Tennessee’s oldest town, is an hour from Knoxville. Founded in 1775, this small community greets visitors with superb examples of Federal style architecture, and its annual storytelling festival draws participants from around the world. Fort Loudon State Park, in Vonore, south of Knoxville, features a reconstruction of a British outpost built in 1756 and destroyed by the Cherokee in 1760. The nearby Sequoyah Birthplace Museum documents the history of the Cherokee Nation.

In partnering with the Institute to host “Warfare and Society in Colonial North America and the Caribbean,” the Center for the Study of War and Society is continuing a long-standing commitment to furthering the study of U.S. military history with an emphasis on the human dimension of war. Founded in 1984, by the late Charles W. Johnson, the Center has traditionally focused on the American veteran experience through oral histories and a growing archival collection of letters, diaries, photographs, and other documents. Since becoming Director in 1999, I have sought to expand our thematic and chronological framework. In 2000 the Center hosted a two-day conference focusing on the Veteran and American Society; in 2003, we organized the annual meeting of the Society for Military History, which attracted more than 400 scholars and graduate students to Knoxville. We will also be collaborating with the University of Tennessee Press in sponsoring a new book series focusing on the Legacies of War.

We look forward to greeting you in Knoxville this fall.

Director, Center for the Study of War and Society, University of Tennessee