John Rice Irwin

John Rice Irwin (December 11, 1930 – January 16, 2022) was an American cultural historian, and founder of the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee.

His interest in history began at an early age, and was inspired by his grandparents to start a museum. He founded the Museum of Appalachia in 1968, which has since grown significantly in both its size and visitation. He was awarded several accolades and awards, and had eight different published books (seven of which are nationally and internationally distributed).

Life and career

In the late 1940s, Irwin served in the U.S. Army infantry. He earned his master's degree in international law at the University of Tennessee. At the age of 31, he was elected superintendent of schools in Anderson County, Tennessee, becoming the youngest superintendent in Tennessee. He and his wife, Elizabeth McDaniel, were married from 1954 until her death in 2008. They had two children: Elaine Meyer and Karen Erickson (died 1999), and three grandchildren.

He lived his last years at Norris Health and Rehab Center. He died at a nursing home in Clinton, Tennessee on January 16, 2022, at the age of 91.

Museum of Appalachia

Irwin's interest in human history was provoked by his grandparents' stories. His grandfather once advised him, "You ought to keep these old-timey things that belonged to our people and start you a little museum sometime." Eventually in the 1960s he took that advice to heart. At a public auction in the early 1960s, he realized that the sales transactions were separating the artifacts of the past from the stories that his grandparents told. Meanwhile, he spent $4 at the auction to buy an old horse shoeing box that had been found in the Clinch River in the aftermath of the deadly Big Barren Creek Flood of 1916. In later years, he said that he bought it not for its value as an antique, but for the history it embodied. His collection grew from that beginning, as he began to travel around the countryside to find and "save the past" in the form of artifacts. By 1980, the museum had grown so large that Irwin left his position as director of the Tennessee Appalachia Education Cooperative to devote all of his time to the museum.