The Archive
FINDING WHAT REMAINS.
History doesn't always survive in museums.
Sometimes it survives in an attic.
A family album.
A collector's cabinet.
An old warehouse.
A box of papers.
A forgotten bottle.
A newspaper clipping.
A story someone remembers.
Whiskeytown is building an archive dedicated to finding, documenting, preserving and sharing the surviving pieces of Chattanooga's whiskey history.
What We Collect
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Historic bottles, labels, seals, packaging and related materials.
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Print advertisements, posters, signs, menus and promotional materials.
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People, places, businesses, distilleries and family photographs.
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Ledgers, letters, receipts, business records and other historical documents.
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Tools, machinery and objects connected to the production and distribution of spirits.
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Maps, property records, addresses and information that help identify historic whiskey locations.
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Memories and oral histories passed down through families and communities.
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Published sources, primary documents and original research that help connect the pieces.
EVERY ARTIFACT IS A CLUE.
A bottle tells us what someone made.
A label tells us what someone wanted us to believe.
An advertisement tells us who they wanted to reach.
A photograph tells us who was there.
A ledger tells us how the business worked.
A family story tells us what the official records may have missed.
Together, they tell us what Chattanooga was.
For Historians & Researchers
HELP US KEEP DIGGING.
Whiskeytown is building a growing body of research around Chattanooga's whiskey history.
We welcome historians, researchers, archivists, collectors, writers, genealogists and anyone with knowledge to contribute.
We're interested in:
Primary documents.
Historical photographs.
Business records.
Newspaper research.
Property records.
Distillery histories.
Brand histories.
Family histories.
Bottle and label research.
Oral histories.
HAVE RESEARCH TO SHARE?
Your work may help connect pieces of the story that have been separated for generations.
