April, 2020
DISCOVERED: RARE SCRAPBOOK CONTAINING PHOTOS AND MEMORIES OF THE 1927 DEDICATION OF THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE PEACE MONUMENT
John Banks, noted Civil War author and blogger and member of the Battle of Nashville Trust board, has done some creative sleuthing and uncovered a treasure trove of history – in words and photos – of the original dedication of the Battle of Nashville Peace Monument in 1927.
Click on John Banks’ Civil War Blog to see what he unearthed in the Tennessee State Library and Archives – a scrapbook, put together by Mrs. May Winston Caldwell, memorializing the original Monument and its dedication on what was then Franklin Road near its intersection with Thompson Lane (an intersection which actually no longer exists, due to its linkage decades later with Woodmont Blvd. which now crosses over Franklin Road by bridge).
Above, one of the historically-important photos of the original BON Monument, discovered by John Banks in the scrapbook of Mrs. May Caldwell. In this cropped view, the photographer is standing along Franklin Road, looking south, near its then-intersection of Thompson Lane. If this photo were taken today, the photographer would almost be standing under the exit ramp from I-440 onto I-65 South.
The scrapbook and its recorded words and images provide a seldom-seen glimpse of the history and origins of the Monument, as well as the landscape around it as it appeared in 1927.
Below is a photographic comparison created by John Banks, showing images of the Monument taken in 1927 and from the same angle in 2020