death of Sam Davis mark the historical and geographical landscapes of the Middle Tennessee heartland. While the narrative of Davis is an ingrained part of regional recognition, Davis' story did not spread beyond Tennessee despite efforts after World War II to give the story a wider circulation. Monuments commemorating him stand at the scene of his execution and on the court square in Pulaski; at his childhood home outside Smyrna, Tennessee; and in the form of a life-size statue positioned prominently on the southeast corner of the state capitol grounds in Nashville. An exhibition case of Sam Davis artifacts—including the overcoat worn at the time of his arrest and the boot in which papers were concealed—is on permanent display at the Tennessee State Museum. Over the years, archivists at the Tennessee State Library and Archives have procured and catalogued scores of documents: firsthand recollections, poems, commemorative speeches, at least four published biographies, and the papers of the Sam Davis Memorial Association. In 1912 a Sam Davis memorial window was installed in the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. In 1927, the State of Tennessee purchased the Davis family home as a memorial site. Operated as a private nonprofit by the Sam Davis Memorial Association, the Sam Davis House outside Smyrna is open to tourists and school groups. In 1928 the 175-foot-tall, 200-room Sam Davis Hotel opened in downtown Nashville. On February 16, 1985 it was demolished to make way for a new convention center. Illustrated Features Syndicate created a newspaper comic strip, "The Story of Sam Davis" in the late 1940s or early 1950s. The strip portrayed Davis, looking remarkably like Clark Gable, as an all–American hero caught up in a tragic era. In the 1950s the "Sam Davis Story" was turned into a theatrical production performed to packed houses in Nashville, and later became the basis of a radio drama broadcast to U.S. troops overseas under the title "Honor Bound". The Sons of Confederate Veterans posthumously awarded Davis their Confederate Medal of Honor, created in 1977. Davis was named "Historical Personality of the Year" in 1992 by the Tennessee Historical Commission. Controversy Sam Davis's youth and the manner of his death has meant that the statue in his memory within the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol has drawn little of the criticism and protest that in recent times has been targeted towards Confederate statues. In 1999, however, the