Several Types of Prehistoric Tennessee Pipes	by Steve Hart,
Central States Archaeological Societies 2018 October Journal	Huntington, Indiana

This excerpt from "Several Types of Prehistoric Tennessee Pipes" published in the 2018 Central States Archaeological Societies 2018 October Journal Read the complete 12 page column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2018 October Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2019

At top: Figure 85 in The Antiquities of Tennessee and the Adjacent States (1890) by Gates P. Thruston. The caption reads: The large stone pipe (Fig.85), representing a kneeling human figure is also an ancient type. It is in the fine collection of General J.T. Wilder, now of Johnson City, Tennessee, and was discovered near Kingston, Tennessee. The material of which it is composed is a compact, reddish brown stone, probably jasper or shale. It is six inches in height. Thruston also states: General Wilder has one of the largest and most carefully selected collections of antiquities in the South, and kindly sent the author a large number of specimens for examination and comparison.

 

Tennessee has seen a number of outstanding archaeologists, students and collectors of prehistoric peoples and their artworks. Three collections come to mind as being outstanding, above all the rest of their time. Early in the nineteenth century President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) cabineted a number of fine artifacts during his days at the Hermitage. Later in that century, General Gates B. Thruston (1835-1912) assembled a collection of prehistoric artforms of both high quality and high quantity. Much of his material came from local Mississippian period sites in and around the Nashville area. During the middle part of the 20th century, Tennessee relic collecting was led by Dr. T. (Thomas) Hugh Young (1891-1962) of Nashville. Dr. Young, in his collecting quest, accumulated some of the finest relics ever recovered. One collecting facet that was shared by all three of these gentlemen was their admiration of prehistoric men and women, and their smoking pipes and traditions.

Of the three collectors, General Thruston was the most prolific writer, authoring books on Civil War history and Tennessee prehistory. Thruston was a Civil War General, then a Nashville attorney and an amateur archeologist. His prehistoric gatherings became well known regionally and in 1890 the Tennessee Historical Society requested he create an illustrated pamphlet of his collection. Thruston, then Vice President of the Society, generated a fully illustrated book of some 380 pages. His work sold for four dollars a copy, less than its actual production cost. He personally covered the additional costs such that his work could be widely available to collectors and students. A second updated edition of his work containing new chapters, notes and illustrations followed in 1897. Thruston’s knowledge and collection became known world-wide and he was asked to display his assemblages in Madrid, Spain at the 1893 Columbian Historical Exposition. This was followed in 1897 at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, and later at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. He was also asked to be the Tennessee representative and exhibited in Paris, France at a French Exposition.

His work The Antiquities of Tennessee and the Adjacent States captured much of the contemporary knowledge of local avocationalists and professional archaeologists in the mid-South communities, and featured collections from Tennessee and neighboring states.

This became THE textbook, and related to the Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian, as well as some contemporary period history of the time. In 1907 General Thruston attempted to donate his entire collection to the State of Tennessee, should the state provide space and security for his assemblage. When the state legislature could not or would not come up with sufficient funding, he donated the collection to Vanderbilt University, Nashville. It remained there until 1986, when Vanderbilt and the Tennessee State Museum Nashville jointly agreed to incorporate Thruston’s collection into the Museum’s permanent exhibit area, where it remains today.

Read the complete 12 page column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2018 October Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2019

Figure 14. President Jackson Great Pipes: Duck Effigy Pipe – Clinton County, Kentucky #A-6, and Animal Effigy Pipe – Cumberland County, Kentucky#A-1.

Read the complete 12 page column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2018 October Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2019