The Reece Museum

10/19/2026

Welcome back to , the series where we will be highlighting the members of the Reece team who work to make the museum a special, welcoming place for visitors!

This week we are highlighting another student worker, Rebecca!

Rebecca is a sophomore, majoring in Biology with a concentration in Teacher Education. This is her second year working at the Reece Museum, where she assists our education curator in generating creative, educational content for our social media platforms! Rebecca joined the Reece team to learn more about Appalachian history, art, and culture.

Rebecca is involved in other organizations on campus, such as the Undergraduate Research Honors Program, the Marching Bucs, and Cru! In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading, playing tennis, and going on side quests with friends.

Be sure to check back next week to meet a new member of our staff here at the Reece Museum!

10/16/2026

This is a silver-plated coffee or tea service kettle with a design featuring a bouquet of foxgloves and morning glories. The following is stamped on the bottom of the kettle:

"MF'd & Plated by Reed & Barton
Design 2569
Patd April 1871"

Reed and Barton is a historic American silversmith and manufacturer of giftware, tableware, and flatware founded in 1824 in Taunton, Massachusetts. Reed and Barton is famous for producing products for the White House and crafting medals for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kettle, c. 1871
Reed and Barton
Silver-plated metal

is a series of student led research of artifacts from our permanent collection. To explore the collections portal, click the link below.
https://reece.pastperfectonline.com/

10/15/2026

10/14/2026

Join the Reece Museum on Thursday, Nov. 5, from 12 PM to 3 PM for Hip Hop Listening Room. This event is part of the Reece Museum's 6th annual Hip Hop History Month Celebration. Hip Hop Listening Room will explore the history and cultural impact of hip hop through musical performances, poetry readings, an album listening party, open-mic jam, and art and culture talks.

Stay tuned for the event's lineup of performers and presenters.

This event is free admission and open to the public.

10/13/2026

Welcome back to , the series where we will be featuring the members of the Reece team who work to make the museum a special, welcoming place for visitors!

This week we are featuring Cade, a student worker here at the Reece!

Cade is a freshman at ETSU, majoring in Biology. This is Cade's first semester working with the Reece team. Cade works at the front desk and assists museum staff with behind-the-scenes aspects of exhibition and event preparations. Cade joined the Reece team for an interesting experience that would provide him with new connections.

Cade's favorite current exhibition at the Reece Museum is The Tennessee Frontier Room, where he is pictured here in front of a collection of historical map prints that showcase renderings dating from 1544 to 1804. This exhibition revisits institutional and regional history, focusing on pieces of family and collective lore that contribute to broader regional mythohistories about the pioneers, explorers, and Indigenous inhabitants of East Tennessee between 1750 and 1840.

Be sure to check back next week to meet a new member of our staff here at the Reece Museum!

10/11/2026

The Reece Museum will be closed October 12 - 13 for Fall Break. The Museum will resume normal hours, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm, on Wednesday, October 14th.

10/09/2026

The Reece Museum presents Spiritual Conversation: Storytelling Through Art Quilts, featuring the work of fiber artist Kristy Ottinger. The exhibition of narrative art quilts marries the practices of quilting and storytelling. Intricately designed textile wall hangings narrate themes in spirituality and illustrate how stories are passed down from one generation to the next. Ottinger’s visionary fiber works showcase meticulous sewing skill and an imaginative incorporation of found objects.

Spiritual Conversation: Storytelling Through Art Quilts will be on view through December 11. The Reece Museum offers free admission and is open to the public Monday - Friday, 9 am - 4:30 pm.

10/07/2026

Autumn is approaching, and leaves are falling here at the Reece Museum!

This preserved leaf is from the Boone Beech Tree, which stood near the intersection of North Roan Street and Old Gray Station Road in what is now north Johnson City, Tennessee. This historic American beech tree bore an inscription attributed to Daniel Boone. In 1760, the American pioneer carved his name into the tree, marking it as a location where he killed a bear. The tree fell during a storm in 1920, but this leaf was preserved in 1911 by a student at Boone’s Creek Seminary.

This artifact is currently on display in The Tennessee Frontier Room, which will be on display through June 4th, 2027. The Reece Museum is open and free to the public Monday-Friday, 9am - 4:30pm.

Preserved Leaf, 1911
preserved American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) leaves, metal, plastic

is a series of student-led research on artifacts in our permanent collection. To explore the collections portal, click the link below.
https://reece.pastperfectonline.com/

10/06/2026

Join us on Thursday, October 15, from 5 to 7 p.m. for an evening of history and performance presented by Dr. Loren Ludwig. "Frontiers of Song: Amzi Chapin’s Journey to the Ohio River Valley" explores the travel chronicles of Amzi Chapin (1768-1835), a composer, instrument maker, and singing schoolteacher whose diary documented his Frontier Era travels between his family home in Massachusetts and the Ohio Valley. This event is free and open to the public.

"Frontiers of Song" explores how Chapin's New England music and instruments took root among the other European, African, and Indigenous musical traditions that would flow south from the Ohio River Valley to shape later styles like dance music for string bands and Shape Note singing in East Tennessee. The presentation will be enlivened by performances of music by Chapin and those he met on his travels, and will feature New England musical selections for viols, melodeon, and other instruments that traveled to the Frontier alongside a people in flux.

Loren Ludwig is a musician and scholar specializing in the history and performance of early American music, with a particular focus on historical stringed instruments and their surprising life in colonial and early republic New England. He holds a PhD in Critical and Comparative Studies in Music from the University of Virginia and trained as a string player at Oberlin Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. Loren currently teaches historical performance and musicology at Johns Hopkins University and the Peabody Institute, and coordinates programming for the Smithsonian's Music250 initiative, marking the nation's semiquincentennial.