• JPHS Meetings

    Marvin Downing Shares Memoir of Circuit Riding Minister on November 15th

    The Jackson Purchase Historical Society will host a program at 10:30 on Saturday, November 15 in the events center at the Martin Public Library at 410 South Lindell Street, Martin, Tennessee. Marvin Downing will discuss the memoir of Weakley County native Hope Hart, briefly summarizing Hart’s life, sketching the book’s content, and reading short selections from Hart’s early life in the Purchase region. Dr. Marvin Downing is professor emeritus of history at the University of Tennessee, Martin. He received his PhD from the University of Oklahoma and has published in the West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, Journal of the Jackson…

  • Uncategorized

    Rachael Baar to Discuss Gee’s Bend Quilts on October 18th

    The Jackson Purchase Historical Society (JPHS) will meet on at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 18, 2025, at the National Quilt Museum (NQM) located at 215 Jefferson Street in Paducah, Kentucky. NQM curator Rachael Baar will speak on Gee’s Bend Quilts: Past, Present, and Future, based on the current museum exhibition, Whiles I Yet Live: Matriarchy and Generational Exchange in Gee’s Bend. All JPHS meetings are free and open to the public. For this meeting, NQM is offering a $10 discounted group rate for admission to the museum exhibits, including the Gee’s Bend show, following the meeting. Since the 19th century, quiltmakers from the rural African American…