History Harvest: Tennessee Ernie Ford

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum wants to record and preserve your Tennessee Ernie Ford stories, photographs, and memorabilia during a “history harvest”!

Do you have a story about a personal connection with Tennessee Ernie Ford, his parents, or his family? Do you or your family have photographs – particularly candid photos – of Ernie on his visits to Bristol, or other Ford-related memorabilia? We would love to add a digital copy to our archive at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum! Come to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum on Saturday, January 16 from 11–4 or on Thursday, January 28 from 1–5 with your item or story to share.

We will record your stories or memories, and scan or photograph the items that you bring with you to add to BCM’s digital archive. These items will help to tell the story of Tennessee Ernie Ford and his connection to Bristol to future generations, and the recordings or digital images will be available to community members, museum staff, and researchers for years to come. BCM will not keep your originals, though museum staff members are happy to discuss the process of donating items to the museum. BCM will send History Harvest participants who provide their email addresses a digital copy of their scanned image, photographed item, or recorded story after the event.

Please contact Dave Lewis (dlewis@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org), our Curator of Collections and Digital Media with any questions, or if you have a particularly large collection of items.

We hope to see all you pea-pickers there!