08 | World War I Relics | Gold Star Records | Military Branch Museum | November 2018 Issue

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, we take a look at artifacts and monuments of The Great War found throughout the city. Host Allen Forkum (editor of The Nashville Retrospect newspaper) interviews Dr. Lisa Budreau, senior curator of military history at the Tennessee State Museum, about relics and souvenirs collected from Tennessee soldiers after World War I, including a German cannon and Sergeant Alvin C. York’s war medals. Dan Pomeroy, senior curator and director of the state museum, relates the history of the Military Branch Museum, located in the War Memorial Building. And Allison Griffey of the Tennessee State Library and Archives discusses stories from the Gold Star Records, including soldier’s letters, as well as women factory workers, the influenza epidemic, and the Mexican village at the Old Hickory gun powder plant. (Segment begins at 03:22)

Some of the uniforms featured in the new Tennessee State Museum temporary exhibition titled “Tennessee and the Great War: A Centennial Exhibition” (left to right): aviator Lieutenant Charles McGhee Tyson of Knoxville (the boots belonged to his father, General Lawrence Tyson), Rebekah Dodson Senter of the Army Nurse Corps, and Captain Albert Harris Jr. of Davidson County and part of the Vanderbilt Medical Unit in France.

The German breastplate armor discussed by Dr. Budreau in the podcast can be seen in the upper left. Beside it is a gas mask case. At the bottom is a Colt-Vickers water-cooled .303 caliber British machine gun, which were used by many countries during WWI, including the U.S. 30th Division troops attached to the British army.

This German field cannon can be seen in the new Tennessee State Museum temporary exhibition about WWI. The 7.7 cm, Model 1896 cannon by Krupp was likely captured by the U.S. 30th Division near the German Hindenburg line in 1918. It took over two and a half years to restore it to operational condition. 

This Sergeant Alvin C. York collection is part of a permanent WWI display at the new Tennessee State Museum. York's Medal of Honor and Croix de Guerre with palm can be seen in the middle right of the picture.

The gold star flag of Nashvillian Johnny Overton, held in the Gold Star Records at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, features the popular WWI phrase “Over There.” Overton was killed on the battlefield in France on July 18, 1918, at the age of 24. You can read more about Johnny Overton in the November 2018 issue, in the article "A Nashville Soldier of the Great War Remembered," by John P. Williams. (Image: Tennessee State Library and Archives)