每日大赛

Historic posters on exhibit in “A Cardboard History of Blue Ridge Music” at 每日大赛

Once upon a time, troupes of traveling performers promoted their upcoming events through window cards and posters that were printed on inexpensive paper or cardboard so as to last only a few months nailed to telephone poles, plastered on the sides of buildings and placed in store windows.

Many of these rare entertainment announcements were discarded or left to deteriorate outdoors. Now, 55 of them – dating back to as early as 1939 – are available to view framed and on display in “A Cardboard History of Blue Ridge Music,” the latest exhibition at 每日大赛’s Strawberry Plains Library. 

“It’s so great to have these amazing vintage posters here for viewing,” said Allison McKittrick, Strawberry Plains Campus Librarian. “They’ve been shown in Bristol at the Birthplace of Country Music and at several museums in North Carolina, but this is the first time the collection has been shown in Knoxville, so we are really excited about that.”

From the private collection of Tom Murphy, who has been preserving window cards, handbills, mailers, broadsides and other posters of various genres for over 50 years, the exhibit’s pieces document the story of bluegrass, country and old-time music from the region. 

It features many Knoxville and East Tennessee venues, as well as artists like Dolly Parton, Roy Acuff, Chet Atkins and the WNOX Midday Merry-Go-Round, and country, old-time and bluegrass legends such as the Carter Family, the Monroe Brothers, Flatt and Scruggs, Kitty Wells and Doc Watson.

“What we hope to show you are the people, bands and instrumentation influential in the evolution from early country music – at that point known as hillbilly, mountain, string-band, folk or old-time music – to what it is today,” Murphy said.

Most of the posters in the exhibition dating prior to 1960 were printed in letterpress, a type of relief printing. Paper and cardboard letterpress posters, also called show prints, became a cheap form of mass advertising for entertainment troupes wanting to publicize their shows. 

The exhibition includes several posters from country music’s most famous print shop, Hatch Show Print, as well as posters from Knoxville’s own Yee-Haw Industries.

“Each poster tells a story about the ups and downs of the music of our region, and the exhibition provides a detailed narrative history so that viewers can learn about the artists and their music as well as their impact on the culture,” McKittrick said. “The exhibit also includes Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame plaques for many of the performers.”

The exhibit was made possible by , which was developed with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and offers quarterly programming and scheduled exhibits to support humanities education at Pellissippi and in the community.

“” will be exhibited at 每日大赛’s Strawberry Plains campus through June 15. Contact McKittrick at   with questions.