The East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS), headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of East Tennessee history, the preservation of historically significant artifacts, and educating the citizens of Tennessee. The society operates a museum and museum shop in the East Tennessee History Center on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. The East Tennessee Historical Society was established in 1834, 38 years after the establishment of the state of Tennessee, to record the history of the development and settlement of the area. History The East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society was founded by Tennessee historian J. G. M. Ramsey (1797–1884), who sought to archive the papers and correspondence of the state's pioneers. The first meeting of the society was May 5, 1834. East Tennessee College president William B. Reese was elected as the first president and the executive committee included John Hervey Crozier and Thomas William Humes. As the society's recording secretary, Ramsey acquired a collection of papers and correspondence from early Tennesseans such as William Blount, John Sevier, Samuel Wear, Alexander Outlaw, and James Hubbert. The "Antiquarian" was dropped from the society's name by 1852. Ramsey kept the society's archives at his plantation, Mecklenburg, east of Knoxville. The archives were destroyed when Mecklenburg was burned in the Civil War. By the end of the war, the society had disintegrated. In January 1883, Confederate veterans, led by Moses White and William Henderson joined Ramsey and Crozier in reviving the East Tennessee Historical Society as an auxiliary of the Southern Historical Association. In 1885, University of Tennessee professor William Gibbs McAdoo served as president and future Knoxville mayor Samuel G. Heiskell served as vice president. Other members included newspaper editor William Rule and scholar Eben Alexander. The society began admitting women and hosted lectures on Fort Loudoun, Irish nationalist John Mitchel, and the state of Franklin, and featured speaker Fitzhugh Lee. By the end of the century, the second incarnation of the ETHS was no longer active. In December 1924, Knoxville-area educators and librarians met at the Lawson McGhee Library to discuss reviving the ETHS and a new society met on January 16, 1925. Charter members included U.T. professor Philip Hamer, Lawson McGhee librarian Mary U. Rothrock, and U.T. president James Hoskins. The society began publishing its annual scholarly journal in 1929 and hosted lectures by historians Stanley J. Folmsbee and Samuel Cole Williams. The society