Calvin Morgan McClung historical collection

In Short

Published in 1921 by the Lawson McGhee Library, this work is a comprehensive, systematically arranged catalog of the historical collection gathered by Calvin Morgan McClung. The text presents thousands of bibliographic entries, including books, rare pamphlets, original manuscripts, regional maps, photographs, and historical newspapers. Rather than telling a single narrative, it documents the exploration, settlement, legal conflicts, and genealogical lines of Tennessee and the surrounding American South. It survives as an essential reference work, capturing the primary sources of early Appalachian and Southern history through the rigorous lens of a devoted twentieth-century collector.

The Story

The volume opens with a short biographical memorial for Calvin Morgan McClung (1855–1919), establishing his academic lineage at East Tennessee University and Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School, alongside his personal connection to Knoxville’s Lawson McGhee Library. Following his passing, his widow presented his personal archive to the library, where professional librarians Laura Luttrell and Mary U. Rothrock organized and cataloged the collection.

The primary body of the text proceeds alphabetically by author or key title word, creating an extensive record of Southern state histories, early American travelogues, indigenous relations, and regional development. The listings span a sweeping chronological range, beginning with early European contact and colonial charters, progressing through the Revolutionary War, and extending into nineteenth-century western expansion, the Civil War, and early twentieth-century industrialization.

Through these entries, the work outlines the territorial evolution of Tennessee and neighboring states like Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Alabama. Readers encounter official government records, such as documents from the Board for the Emigration of the Aborigines of America, alongside early histories like James Adair’s 1775 History of the American Indians and William Bradford’s account of Plymouth Plantation. Military history is heavily represented through regimental rosters, revolutionary service registers, and published addresses on figures like George Rogers Clark and Stonewall Jackson.

The central portion of the catalog documents infrastructure, civil governance, and institutional life in the South. Reports from early transportation ventures, including the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad, sit alongside economic analyses of local mineral deposits and agricultural handbooks published by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Religious history is similarly cataloged through church directories, missionary society journals, and collections of published sermons from pioneer preachers.

Towards its conclusion, the text narrows its focus to hyper-local records. A dedicated section captures the print history of Knoxville, Tennessee, detailing municipal directories, local literary journal issues, and promotional pamphlets highlighting the city's manufacturing power. The volume closes with listings of unique autograph letters, original legal deeds, historical maps, and rare regional newspaper runs, preserving direct primary evidence from key figures like John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, and Alexander Spotswood.

How It Unfolds

The collection established The text introduces Calvin Morgan McClung’s academic life and his absorbing passion for collecting regional historical materials with painstaking exactness. Following his death, his collection is formally gifted to the Lawson McGhee Library and organized by professional librarians.

Early travel and frontier settlement The bibliography begins by listing fundamental works on native populations, colonial boundary disputes, and first-hand accounts of early frontier travel across the Appalachian Mountains. Volumes by early historians, military commanders, and naturalists establish the territorial background of the region.

Statehood, law, and church history The entries progress through state histories, legislative journals, and church conference records. Works document the formal establishment of Tennessee, early legal codes, missionary reports, and the founding of educational institutions across the South.

Conflict and civil distress The listings compile materials surrounding major military conflicts, particularly the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. These include pension records, personal diaries, soldier rosters, and published convention proceedings reflecting regional political divisions.

Industrial expansion and local heritage The focus shifts to late-nineteenth-century industry, covering geological survey reports, railroad company filings, and municipal promotion books. The section concludes with Knoxville-specific print items, personal letters from historical leaders, and holdings of early Southern newspapers.

The People

• Calvin Morgan McClung: An educated scholar and dedicated collector whose life's secondary work was gathering historical books, original manuscripts, and maps concerning Tennessee and the South. He annotated his library with meticulous clippings and marginal notes, ultimately leaving his vast collection to the public.
• Laura Luttrell: An alumna of the Wisconsin Library School who served as the organizer of the collection. She co-compiled and systematically arranged the catalog entries to make the extensive archive accessible to researchers.
• Mary U. Rothrock: The librarian of the Lawson McGhee Library, trained at the New York State Library School. She co-managed the cataloging project, ensuring that the acquired collection was properly processed, categorized, and presented to the city of Knoxville.
• John Sevier: The pioneer politician and first Governor of Tennessee whose original correspondence and legal land deeds are preserved within the manuscript section of the collection.
• Isaac Shelby: The early military leader and Governor of Kentucky whose wartime letters to Tennessee governors and military commanders form a core part of the collection's direct manuscript holdings.

In Its Own Voice

"The collection of historical material relating to his own state and city was the absorbing interest of his later life."

Context: The preface introduces Calvin Morgan McClung and describes his precise, scholarly approach to gathering historical documents.

"Evidence of his painstaking exactness may be seen in the marginal annotations, the clippings and letters to be found in almost every volume of his library."

Context: The text details how McClung personally interacted with and enhanced the historical volumes in his possession.

"The following catalog is arranged alphabetically by author or, when the author is not known, by the key word of the title."

Context: The compilers explain the structural organization used to index the vast array of regional books, maps, and manuscripts.

What It's Really About

At its heart, this catalog is a monument to the power of preservation and the intentional construction of regional memory. It addresses how a community remembers its origins by systematically gathering the fragile, printed remnants of its past. The text demonstrates that history is not merely written in sweeping narratives, but is anchored in everyday records: court dockets, railroad reports, personal letters, local directories, and transient newspaper issues. By bringing together early Indigenous records, pioneer memoirs, church histories, and industrial tracts, the volume argues for a grounded, evidence-based understanding of Southern history. It poses fundamental questions about whose voices are preserved in public archives and how private scholarship can be transformed into a public resource.

Why Read It Today

This work appeals directly to historians, genealogists, bibliophiles, and researchers focusing on early American and Appalachian history. Reading through its dense entries offers a distinct sense of historical immersion, revealing the sheer texture of daily life, political conflict, and commerce in the early South. Rather than presenting a smooth narrative, the catalog acts as an expansive road map through primary source literature.

Readers should anticipate a purely functional reference format consisting of bibliographic citations, municipal lists, and collection inventories without narrative prose or stylistic embellishment. Its value lies in its exhaustive thoroughness and exactness. For anyone researching Tennessee settlement, Southern legal boundaries, or early regional publishing, this volume remains an indispensable, authentic index of foundational American historical records.