Family of leading Kingsport historian donates treasure trove to Archives
Ms. Spodens broad research collection includes more than 80 boxes of material that has not yet been cataloged. The material must first be sorted, arranged, preserved and carefully stored, while an archival finding aide similar to a card catalog will be developed as well. Original materials will be preserved, with scanned copies to be made available for public access.
In addition to research, Muriel Spoden was a prolific author, penning a historical map of the Long Island of the
‚§ An American Ancestry of the Clark-Morton and Tyman Millar-Adams Families
‚§Historic Sites of
‚§ Early Years on
‚§ The Ancestors and Descendants of Richard Netherland, Esq. (1794-1832)
‚§ The Netherland Inn Chronicles
‚§ The Long Island of the Holston: Sacred
‚§
Muriel Spoden was born in
Husband Hal Spoden was an important collaborator on many projects, taking photos for illustrations, drawing maps and helping restore Netherland Inn. The Spoden familys donation fills a critical gap in the Archives materials, which principally date to the Citys incorporation in 1917 and later.
The Muriel Spoden collection adds a massive amount of research on the history of the area, especially early
Meanwhile, the work of processing the materials has just begun, with The Friends of the Archives supporting the effort by providing funding to hire an intern to work with Wright to process the materials.
This is a large amount of material and we know the public will be anxious to see it, so we are trying to process it as quickly as we possible to make it available to other researchers, said Kingsport Public Library Manager Helen Whittaker. We hope to have at least some of the collection available by early fall. Check back with the librarys website, www.kingsportlibrary.org, or the archives website, www.kingsportlibrary.org/archives, to see when items are going to become available for review.