Statements
Mission
Travellers Rest Historic House Museum, Inc. is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the 1799 Overton home and landscape and serving as a gateway for learners of all ages to explore and experience Nashville's historic past.
For the 2022 Big Payback, we are raising funds to stabilize our historic smokehouse that was built in the 1840s. Preservation of the smokehouse is an integral part of the site's landscape and overall interpretation, especially since it is one of three historic building on the property. Addressing structural issues and masonry needs will help in preserving the structure for future generations to continue to learn about the history and specific activities and individuals associated with the smokehouse. This benefit is reflected in the organization's 2020-2025 Strategic Plan where the highest priority is placed on updating and expanding the interpretation of individuals, particularly the enslaved and post-emancipation African Americans who lived and worked at Travellers Rest.
This year we are thrilled to The Henry Laird Smith Foundation providing a dollar for dollar match for the first $5,000 raised.
Background
Travellers Rest Historic House Museum is a leading resource for the of history of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Established in 1799 by Judge John Overton, an early settler and leading citizen of Middle Tennessee, Historic Travellers Rest served as home for Overton, his family, and their descendants until the mid-1940s. Judge Overton was an early Tennessee State Supreme Court Justice, one of the founders of the city of Memphis, and a close personal friend and adviser of President Andrew Jackson.
The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Tennessee acquired Historic Travellers Rest in 1954, restored the home to interpret the early 19th century life of the Overton family, and opened the site as a historic house museum. The museum's interpretive and educational mission has evolved and expanded since its opening to include almost 1000 years of cultural development of the mid-Cumberland Basin, from the area's prehistoric origins as a Native American settlement, to Nashville as an outpost on America's first frontier, to the Civil War and the city's emergence as a leading capitol of the New South.
Historic Travellers Rest, which has the rare distinction of listing in the National Register of Historic Places under each of the four listing criteria: Event, Person, Design/Construction, and Information Potential, is recognized as a premier resource for Middle Tennessee history.
Impact
Historic Travellers Rest visitors from across the country and around the world explore and experience nearly 800 years of Nashville's historic past presented through artifacts, exhibits, and stories about the people and events that helped forge our local, regional and national heritage. Visitor experiences at Historic Travellers Rest feature objects from the collection, guided tours through the historic house and outbuildings, multi-media and interactive exhibits, and living history programs.
Needs
Travellers Rest has several funding needs that will enable us to continue to preserve and steward this site, as well as provide an honest and accurate interpretation of the diverse people who lived here during the the past 800 years. Increased general operating support will allow us to continue researching and updating our historic interpretations and presenting high quality educational programs to the public. The site also has several preservation needs, including the rehabilitation of portions of the historic home and preservation of the historic 1820s era smokehouse.
Since Historic Travellers Rest is on the site of an early Mississippian village, and John Overton was federally appointed Indian agent, we are researching and to planning to install an exhibition to interpret the Native American presence and lifeways in the Middle Tennessee region.
Additionally, we seek to grow our endowment to help permanently underwrite the salaries and benefits of key professional staff.
CEO Statement
Experiencing historic sites can transform lives. At no place is this more true than at Travellers Rest. Here you can glimpse what the American frontier must have looked like in terms of landscape and architecture. You may be surprised what you find. Here you can begin to understand day to day life prior to the technology that makes life easier for us today. There is more--in an award-winning exhibition about the enslaved community you can learn the names of the people who worked at Travellers Rest, learn how people who lived here coped with a Civil War battle moving across their property, and, not least, you can learn about the vast native American Mississippian settlement that occupied this land way before European settlement. As a veteran history museum professional, I can tell you that the staff and Board of Directors at Travellers Rest have been doing everything right. The interpretation plan was developed many years ago by famous architectural historian William Seale, author of the history of the White House. Studies into the conservation of the historic buildings on the property have been done by several acclaimed restoration architecture firms. Care of the collection has been assessed by the American Association of Museum's Museum Assessment Program. A study of visitors has been done through VisitorsCount a program of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). Also, Travellers Rest is working through AASLH's StEPS program ((Steps and Excellence Program for History Organizations) to lead through excellence in history museum management. Staff members at Travellers Rest have been recognized for their leadership in such organizations as the Tennessee Association of Museums, AASLH, and the Southeastern Association for Living History Farms and Agricultural Museums, among others. In addition, the resources and guidance brought to Travellers Rest from the National Society of Colonial Dames in America provides ongoing assistance and guidance for operational excellence. Many are not aware that the NSCDA owns and operates a greater number of America's historic houses than any other organization. For that reason alone, the future sustainability of Travellers Rest and its ability to impact both the local community and tourists to the Nashville area is optimistic. Please consider supporting this organization through a general donation or by funding one of the main objectives listed for this year. Many thanks! Katie O'Bryan, Executive Director
Board Chair Statement
Travellers Rest, the historic house of Judge John Overton, is 221 years old. This property remained within his family until the late 1940s, and in 1954 it was handed to The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the state of Tennessee by the L&N Railroad. It is the oldest residence open to the public in Davidson County. In the last 66 years, this property has experienced some modification in governance and historic restoration, but nothing comparable to the challenges created by Radnor Yards and Interstate 65, both immediately adjacent to the property. I have to think our forward-thinking Judge would have recognized improved transportation as progress.
In the telling of Overton and his descendants' stories, what captures my attention is how they clearly reveal and bring alive the history of Nashville and the young and influential state of Tennessee. Travellers Rest truly is an open, easy, engaging gateway to Middle Tennessee's history, whether we talk of relations with Native Americans in the early days, slavery in an agriculturally rich basin, the quest for educational enlightenment as the frontier receded, the sprouting of rail lines that within 10 years made Tennessee a war zone both east and west, north and south, during our nation's civil war. But it doesn't end in 1865; Overton descendants met the challenge of a New South and shook off what no longer 'fit' Nashville's budding 20th century.
As these interpretations were developed and school programs and summer camps initiated, the site witnessed a shift from volunteer staff to professional employees and in governance from the NSCDA in Tennessee to a community board, including but expanded beyond Colonial Dames. Any and every museum that survives beyond infancy feels emotional and financial adjustments associated with the departure or minimizing of the group that 'birthed' the institution, even when the new caretakers were described and chosen by that earlier first generation. The great gift of institutional memory provided by the Dames in Nashville, as well as the finances, research, energy, gardeners, and consultants they brought to Travellers Rest enabled it to be a solidly grounded endeavor when the enlarged community board received the reins.
There have been as well more recent attempts at inclusion: Travellers Rest wants a board that represents the diversity of Nashville, shown not only through the amazing number of educational institutions found here but also through the representation by board members of many sections of Nashville neighborhoods and wide variety of enterprises. Music, advertising, insurance, technology, medicine, banking, success in legal concerns, historic preservation, estate sales and collecting, professional athletic teams, and financial activity - our board members are experts in these areas and others too.
Besides increased diversity along career lines, we seek ethnic and racial diversity as well, even as our exhibits show an openness and thoughtfulness of approach that has won awards for Travellers Rest. We recognize economic, racial, religious and ethnic diversity as a needed, desired, and not yet fully accomplished measurement of what we hope for and can achieve as we undertake a new five-year strategic plan.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Arts, Culture & Humanities - History Museums |
| Secondary Category: | Education - Educational Services |
| Tertiary Category: | Public & Societal Benefit - Professional Societies & Associations |
Areas Served
Travellers Rest serves the Middle Tennessee community and visitors from across the country and around the world.
| TN - Davidson |
| TN - Maury |
| TN - Robertson |
| TN - Rutherford |
| TN - Sumner |
| TN - Williamson |
| TN - Wilson |
