Tennessee State Museum’s Military Branch to Close for Six Weeks for Exhibition Updates

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – November 7, 2019 – The Tennessee State Museum Military Branch, an outpost of the Museum located in historic War Memorial Building in downtown Nashville, will close for approximately six weeks this fall in order to update its exhibitions. The Branch is scheduled to close to the public on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 and reopen on Friday, December 13, 2019. Because the Military Branch is traditionally closed on Sundays and Mondays, its last day open to the public before the temporary closing will be Saturday, November 9 from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Those wishing to engage with Tennessee military history during the Military Branch’s closure are invited to visit the Tennessee State Museum’s main location at 1000 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. at Bicentennial Mall Capitol State Park, where exhibitions include Tennessee’s role in foreign wars as part of its chronological history of the state, including a temporary exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of WWI, Tennessee and the Great War: A Centennial Exhibition.

Exhibitions at the Military Branch of the Museum explore America’s overseas conflicts, beginning with the Spanish-American War in 1898 and ending with the Vietnam War. War Memorial Building has housed artifacts related to Tennesseans’ service in foreign wars since it was built in 1925 to memorialize those in the state that fought and died in World War I. The building was home to the Tennessee State Museum from 1937-1981, after which the Museum moved to the James K. Polk Center and the War Memorial Building location officially became the Museum’s Military Branch. The State Museum moved to a new location at Bicentennial Mall Capitol State Park in 2018.

The Tennessee State Museum Military Branch is located at 301 6th Ave. North, in downtown Nashville, inside the historic War Memorial Building on Legislative Plaza. The entrance is on the left side of the building near the Vietnam War Memorial. The entrance which offers safety ramps for accessibility is located off of Union Street on the south end of Legislative Plaza.

About the Tennessee State Museum:

The Tennessee State Museum, on the corner of Rosa L. Parks Blvd. and Jefferson Street at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, is home to 13,000 years of Tennessee art and history. Through six permanent exhibitions titled Natural History, First Peoples, Forging a Nation, The Civil War and Reconstruction, Change and Challenge and Tennessee Transforms, the Museum takes visitors on a journey – through artifacts, films, interactive displays, events and educational programming – from the state’s geological beginnings to the present day. Additional temporary exhibitions explore significant periods and individuals in history, along with art and cultural movements. The Museum is free and open to the public Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. For more information on exhibitions and events, please visit tnmuseum.org.

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Contact:
Joe Pagetta
Tennessee State Museum
Director of Communications
joseph.pagetta@tn.gov
(615) 741-5134