We are excited to announce the addition of two Nashville-based speakers for the 2018 Winter Seminar who will present on Saturday morning, March 24th.
“The Ongoing Preservation of the Historic Nashville City Cemetery”
9:30 a.m. – March 24th
“A walk through the cemetery is truly a walk through Nashville’s history. The gravestones tell the stories of individuals and families from the 1820s to the present day.” So begins the fascinating story of the Nashville City Cemetery. Opened in 1822, the City Cemetery is the oldest continuously operated public cemetery in Nashville.
We are fortunate to have Fred Zahn, from the Metropolitan Historical Commission for Nashville, who will take us on a captivating journey through the cemetery’s rich history and folklore. Fred holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado in Boulder and a Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His role with the city includes inspecting preservation permits, consulting on cemetery preservation issues throughout the county, and managing the ongoing “life” of the historic Nashville City Cemetery.
“The Intriguing and Absorbing Business History of Nashville – A Storyteller’s Account”
10:45 a.m. – March 24th
When did Nashville become Music City U.S.A.? Did Teddy Roosevelt really say that Maxwell House Coffee was good to the last drop? And what about the bizarre saga of Minnie Pearl’s Fried Chicken, a company founded by brothers John Jay and Henry Hooker that went from a stock-market darling to a legendary failure in only a few months.
Providing rare facts in reviewing Nashville’s past and present businesses, Bill Carey, writer with The Tennessee Magazine and author of the book, “Fortunes Fiddles and Fried Chicken: A Nashville Business History”, will share with us charming anecdotes and absorbing stories from his comprehensive account of the city’s history.
Bill Carey co-founded Tennessee History for Kids in November 2004. He worked as a reporter in Nashville through most of the 1990s, and he is the author of six books, among them “Chancellors, Commodores and Coeds: A History of Vanderbilt University”; and, “Leave No One Behind: Hurricane Katrina and the Rescue of Tulane Hospital.” He is a native of Huntsville, Alabama, who spent five years as a flight officer in the U.S. Navy. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1987.