Wednesday, June 14 at the East Tennessee Historical Socitey

East Tennessee Historical Society’s next Brown Bag Lecture will be June 14 and will feature Anne Bridges, co-director of the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project, University of Tennessee, and is titled “From Pi Beta Phi to Arrowmont: Stories and Images from Early Gatlinburg.”

In 1912, the Pi Beta Phi female fraternity opened a settlement school in Gatlinburg as a service project. Their mission later expanded to include economic development through craft marketing and health care. The Pi Phis diligently documented their work through reports, letters, photographs, and magazine articles. The University of Tennessee libraries in partnership with Arrowmont and the Pi Beta Phi School in Gatlinburg is currently digitizing selected material from the archives to create a fully-searchable website complete with subject essays. Other project members who will be participating are Ken Wise, Steve Davis, Kate Stepp, and all of the UT Libraries.

Brown Bag Lectures begin at noon at the East Tennessee Historical Society, 601 S Gay Street (across from the Tennessee Theatre) in downtown Knoxville. The mission of the Society is to preserve, interpret and promote the region’s history. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The Brown Bag lecture and current exhibits are offered at no charge and are open to the public. Click here for directions to ETHS.