Join the 1834 Society and Secure the Future

The 1834 Society recognizes multi-year commitments to help support and grow the East Tennessee Historical Society as a premier attraction for the region’s residents and visitors.

Join the 1834 Society and Secure the Future

East Tennessee’s heritage is timeless, for if history has taught us anything, it is that our past is the key to our future. Help us preserve that past; help us ensure our future by joining ETHS as a member of the 1834 Society.

The 1834 Society is an annual leadership giving program of the East Tennessee Historical Society in support of our important work with public programs, exhibits, and, most important, teacher development and student education.

The 1834 Society recognizes major annual giving donors making a multi-year commitment that results in a minimum cumulative gift of $25,000 over five years. The program goal is to secure the annual funding to operate the Museum of East Tennessee History as an educational institution and as a premier destination attraction for both the region’s residents and visitors to East Tennessee.

Individuals, corporations, and foundations from across the region are invited to show their generous volunteer spirit with a commitment of $25,000 to $100,000, payable over five years in annual gifts of cash or securities. Special opportunities are also available to individuals or corporations who may want to apply the gift toward sponsorship of exhibits, special events, or K-12 student education programs.

Learn more about the 1834 Society

Contact

Miniature of John Sevier painted by Knoxville artist Eleanor Wiley. Ca. 1930

John Sevier Leadership Circle

The hero of Kings Mountain, general, governor of the State of Franklin, six-term governor of Tennessee, U.S. Senator, U.S. Congressman, John Sevier personified the state’s pioneer era, was the most beloved of Tennessee’s early citizens, and was fondly known as “Chucky Jack” for his home on the Nolichucky River.

$100,000 Over Five Years
John Sevier Leadership Circle Members
  • Boyd Family Foundation
  • Natalie and Jim Haslam
  • Susan Richardson Williams
Sequoyah by Henry Inman, 1830

Sequoyah Leadership Circle

Sequoyah is the only person to have independently created a written language. The son of an English trader and Cherokee mother, his English name was George Gist. He was born in the Cherokee town of Tuskegee on the Little Tennessee River. Sequoyah was a silversmith by trade, and in 1825 he moved to the Cherokee Territory in Arkansas.

$75,000 Over Five Years
Davy Crockett by John Gadsby Chapman

David Crockett Leadership Circle

David Crockett was a legendary frontiersman with a cultivated image as a straight-talking, larger-than-life backwoodsman. He was a War of 1812 veteran, served in the Tennessee legislature and U.S. Congress, where his opposition to land reform and Indian removal helped end his career. Crockett died in 1836 at the Battle of the Alamo.

$50,000 Over Five Years
David Crockett Leadership Circle Members
  • Clayton Family Foundation, Knoxville
A portrait of William Augustus Blount by Jacob Marling.

William Blount Leadership Circle

As the first and only governor of the Southwest Territory, William Blount (1749-1800) played a major role in the establishment of Tennessee. He negotiated the Treaty of Holston to open new lands for settlement, was a U.S. Senator, and was a member of the U.S. Continental Congress and the U.S. Constitutional Convention.

$25,000 Over Five Years
William Blount Leadership Circle Members
  • Trey and Sarah Bellar
  • Imogene King and Richard Rogers
  • Sherri Lee
  • Stowers Machinery Foundation
  • Brenda and Charlie Tombras
  • Breezy Wynn and Vance Thompson
  • Greg Vital