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State Symbols
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Official state symbols represent the cultural heritage
and natural treasures of each state or the entire United States |
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Tennessee Symbols
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Tennessee State Historian
Walter T. Durhamn
Appointed in 2002.
Adopted in 1955
The office of state historian was created in 1955 by the General Assembly. Dr. Robert H. White, the first appointed state historian, served in that capacity from 1955 until his death in 1970. Dan H. Robison served as state historian from 1970 to 1972, and Stanley F. Horn served from 1972 until his death in 1980. Wilma Dykeman was appointed by Gov. Lamar Alexander on Jan. 17, 1981.
Retired Gallatin businessman and public affairs activist, Walter T. Durham has
been engaged in writing Tennessee history for the past thirty-five years.
Holder of the B.A. and M.A. degrees from Vanderbilt University, he is a member
of the Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Sigma Alpha honorary societies. During World
War II, he served with the Air Force in Italy and Africa. He has received national
honors in the business community for his leadership in the manufacture
and sales of building materials. A practiced public speaker, he is a former chairman
of the Tennessee Historical Commission and past president of the Tennessee
Historical Society. Durham's writing first reached public print outside of
Gallatin when, at the age of fifteen, he became Sumner County correspondent
for the daily Nashville Banner. In 1969 he published The Great Leap Westward,
the first of his seventeen Tennessee books, four of which were done with
collaborators. His works have received several awards. He has written more
than one hundred articles for magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he has contributed entries to
Simon and Schuster's Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, 1993, and the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History
and Culture, 1998. He has written chapters for other books and a number of book reviews. His support of
libraries, archives, and education earned the Library Leadership Award from Vanderbilt University, the
John H. Thweatt Archival Advancement Award from the Society of Tennessee Archivists, and the Glass
Apple from Vanderbilt's Peabody College. A former member of the board of trustees of Monmouth College
(IL) and the alumni board of Vanderbilt, Durham was chairman of the year-long celebration of the Gallatin
Bicentennial, 1802-2002. Governor Don Sundquist appointed him State Historian in 2002. Advocating a
candid, unadorned view of history, Durham noted, "We can see much of what is good and bad about America
in Tennessee history, but rest assured, there is more glory than shame."
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State Symbols
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State symbols represent things that are special to a
particular state.
symbol \ˈsim-bəl\
noun
Etymology:
in sense 1, from Late Latin symbolum, from Late Greek symbolon, from Greek, token, sign; in
other senses from Latin symbolum token, sign, symbol, from Greek symbolon, literally, token
of identity verified by comparing its other half, from symballein to throw together,
compare, from syn- + ballein to throw — more at devil
Date: 15th century
1: Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or
convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible.
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