Recollections Podcast

Jessie Ackermann was probably the most traveled woman in the Victorian era, conducting eight world tours and visiting every continent except Antarctica. But these weren't leisure trips. Jessie was on a mission.

For decades, Uncle Dave Macon was a star of the Grande Ole Opry. What can his collar tell us about old-time and country music cultures in the early twentieth century?

There’s a little-known Depression-era mural on ETSU’s Johnson City campus that tells a story of Appalachia in transition. The mural captures the dizzying industrial developments of early twentieth century Tennessee, and the migrations of its people within and outside the region.

In the late 1920s, two German-owned rayon factories began operations in the town of Elizabethton in East Tennessee. By 1929, a huge strike was underway at both plants, with the women workers leading the charge. We examine a matchbook ad in our collections that launches us into the women’s side of the story of the Elizabethton Rayon Plant Strikes of 1929.

This episode focuses on an egg-shaped bloodstone in the Reece Museum’s collections. While little is known about the item’s history, Lynch-Thomason interviews an expert in folklore to explore bloodstone’s historic, multicultural usage as a magical tool.

This is a sneak peak of the first episode of the B. Carroll Reece Museum's Recollections podcast series.