News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Tennessee State Museum is celebrating 75 years of the United Nations with the help of the Friends of Cordell Hull.
The Pickett County Group is lending Hull’s Nobel Peace Prize medal to the museum, as well as the first charter of the United Nations signed by Hull. Friends of Cordell Hull Treasurer Lana Rossi said Hull’s post-civil war, reconstruction era roots in the Upper Cumberland set the stage for his career in diplomacy.
“He was the father of the United Nations and he came from a background here in the Upper Cumberland,” Rossi said. “His father was a share cropper and this man rose to power across the world.”
Rossi said Hull’s connection to the Upper Cumberland reaches Clay, Smith and Pickett County. Also, Rossi said Hull’s background cutting and floating logs gave him a special connection to one of the most infamous figures in history.
“He even had a personal relationship with Stalin,” Rossi said. “Who if I understand my history, that he wasn’t friends with anybody, he didn’t trust westerners.”
Rossi said the Friends of Cordell Hull asked for a $2 million dollar insurance policy to lend the items. That is a long way from how the Peace Prize used to be protected by group members, like Rossi’s uncle.
“My uncle actually slept with the Nobel Peace Prize under his bed for a couple of years,” Rossi said.
The Cordell Hull exhibit will run from October 13-25 at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. There will be accompanying digital events focusing on Hull and the United Nations on October 14 and October 24.
Links to those digital events will be posted on the events calendar at TNMuseum.org.
