During the centennial of World War I, a Tennessee exhibition from the Museum of the American Military Experience is showcasing groundbreaking research into the wartime exploits of Tennessee native Alvin C. York.
In the Footsteps of Sergeant York will run through July 8 at the Museum of East Tennessee History in Knoxville.
York, who initially claimed exemption from the war-time draft because he said he “don’t want to fight” due to his religious beliefs, became one of the most decorated and celebrated allied soldiers of the Great War after single-handedly killing 25 German soldiers and capturing 132 more in a battle in the Argonne Forest in France.
Until now, the most compelling story of this unassuming Tennessee son has been the Academy Award-winning movie portrayal of York by actor Gary Cooper in 1941.
The exhibition includes 18 descriptive panels, eight cases of artifacts, a documentary film, and a supporting interactive website. The East Tennessee Historical Society augmented the exhibition with regional stories and artifacts, including a bible carried by York during WWI and later carried by a friend’s son throughout World War II, as well as examples of American and German wartime paraphernalia.
The exhibit is designed to offer a sense of York’s home life and wartime experiences. Visitors can walk through a life-sized trench much like the ones troops hunkered down in during the war.
The exhibit builds on work done between 2006 and 2009 by an international team of historians, archeologists, and geographers who traveled to the Western Front battlefields to rediscover and document where the Fentress County-native, then a corporal, took command after his unit was nearly wiped out and single-handedly overran entrenched German machine gun nests to stop German plans for a counter-attack.
The East Tennessee Historical Society will provide a variety of corresponding programs throughout the exhibit’s run, including a lecture on “Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America” with Michael Neiberg, PhD, on Sunday, February 11, and a screening of the film Sergeant York on Sunday, February 18, with commentary by Dr. Michael Birdwell, professor of history at Tennessee Tech University and curator of Alvin C. York’s papers.
The Museum of East Tennessee History is located in the East Tennessee History Center, 601 South Gay Street, Knoxville. For more information visit www.easttnhistory.org.