Thousands of images from the Tennessee Department of Conservation now available on TeVA...

By Jennifer Randles

We’re celebrating summer by releasing over 6,000 images from the Department of Conservation Photograph Collection on the Tennessee Virtual Archive (TeVA)! This collection is a treasure trove of images documenting Tennessee people, places, and things from 1937-1976. The photos cover topics such as art, agriculture, fishing, folklife, cities & towns, wildlife, historic sites, nature, people, and industry.

Children feeding ducks in Watauga Lake, in Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee. 1955.

James L. Bailey, Supervisor of the Educational Service, Department of Conservation, with Conservation students Donald Pitts of Hixon,Tennessee, and James King of Erwin, Tennessee at Fall Creek Falls State Park. 1957.

A roadside table, one mile west of Linden, Tennessee, with a family seated at it. 1953.

Opryland U.S.A., Nashville, Tennessee. This water slide was known as the "flume zoom or "flume ride." 1972.

The photographs were created for the Department of Conservation's magazine and also used to promote tourism from 1937-1976. Now that these images are part of TeVA, they are even easier to search, browse, and download. The digital collection is an ongoing project, with a goal to publish the entire Department of Conservation Photograph Collection for public access online by the end of 2019. Visit the collection at http://bit.ly/TeVAConservation and keep coming back to see what we have added.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett