Tennessee State Museum

Revolutionary War-era military uniforms exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum

The Tennessee State Museum traces its roots to a museum opened on Nashville's public square in 1817 by portrait artist Ralph E.W. Earl. A young boy who visited the museum in 1823 wrote home that he had seen a life-size painting of then-General Andrew Jackson. That same painting is now part of the Tennessee State Museum collection.

In 1937, the Tennessee General Assembly created a state museum to consolidate war mementos and other collections from the state, the Tennessee Historical Society, and other groups, including a rare 13-star United States flag, which is displayed with an exhibit on the role of Tennesseans in the Revolutionary War. The museum was located on the lower level of the War Memorial Building until it moved into the new James K. Polk Center in 1981. It remained there for more than 35 years until, in 2015, Gov. Bill Haslam proposed a new home for the museum on the northwest corner of the Bicentennial Mall in Nashville. The Tennessee General Assembly appropriated $120 million to build the Museum, with the additional funding to complete the project to be raised in private contributions. 

The new Tennessee State Museum, encompassing 137,000 sq. ft. of administration and gallery space, opened to the public on October 4, 2018. Admission to the museum is free.