News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Warren County Heritage Alliance’s new president has goals of revitalizing the county’s history museum.
Cody Prince said that he decided to take over the role because of his love of history and his connection to Warren County. He said that with such a rich history in the county and in McMinnville, he wants to make sure the Heritage Alliance is involved in making people aware of it.
“Once we get the museum back open and running, our plan is to, every major event the city hosts, the museum wants to be open and helping with that,” Prince said. “We are currently working with the Black History Museum here in town, with the Archives, and with the Warren County Genealogical Association.”
Prince said since he’s begun in his new role, the first task has been to start organizing their inventory. He said they currently have some 10,000 artifacts from over the past 170 years including costumes from Dinah Shore and Dottie West.
“We have a few photographs from Warren County’s first photographer Fletch Woodard from the 1850s and 60s. In the early 1900s there was a college here known as the Southern School of Photography,” Prince said. “And its president, his name was William Spencer Lively, and he was a very well-known photographer across the United States, even so, that Washington D.C. had asked him to a do a project there. They wanted numerous photographers and he said no I can’t do that, I’ll do three photographs and they’ll be the largest you’ve ever seen.”
Prince said that the photograph stood at six feet tall, and one is in the museum’s possession. He said they also have the hand-built camera Lively used to take the photographs.
Prince said the museum has been stagnant for the last several years partly due to COVID. Once they finish organizing inventory, the group hopes to reopen the museum in a new, user-friendly configuration.
