About the Knox County Public Library Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection

The Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library System is going to be able to share some of its photograph collections and other special materials online thanks to grants from the state of Tennessee, Knox County and a host of other generous donors. The initial projects include two photograph collections and group of manuscript collections which document the women suffrage movement.

The Knox County Two Centuries Photograph Collection

During the celebration of Knox County’s two hundredth birthday in 1992, the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection of the Knox County Public Library System copied over 3,000 photographs owned by over 230 Knox County citizens and organizations. The aim of the project was to collect as large a body of photographs as possible documenting Knox County from the early days of photography in the 1840s to the 1970s. Library staff went on-site to 28 locations in Knox County on 44 different days during 1991. The resulting collection of photographs documents the daily lives of individuals, families, communities, and institutions of Knox County during two centuries. The book Two Centuries of Knox County, Tennessee: A Celebration in Photographs, published in 1992 by the Friends of the Knox County Public Library, was able to offer only a small cross section of the hundreds of photographs copied during this project.

The Thompson Photograph Collection

The Thompson Photograph Collection includes an estimated 75,000 negatives, providing a rich visual legacy of Knoxville and East Tennessee from 1907 to 1960. Preservation printing of these negatives has been the major focus of the McClung Historical Collection for two decades. The initial images will be drawn from 10,000 new preservation prints, covering the years from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s. James E. (Jim) Thompson (1881-1976) was one of Knoxville’s pioneer commercial and professional photographers. Jim Thompson and his younger brother Robin Thompson (1895-1977) were business partners from 1920 to 1926 as Thompson Brothers. Both men were pioneer commercial photographers.  By the late 1920s, Jim Thompson’s photographs (Jim Thompson Co.) and those of his brother Robin Thompson (Robin Thompson, Inc.) were appearing in local and national commercial publications.

Photo usage or reproduction inquiries, contact: DigitalCollections@knoxlib.org or (865) 215-8808.