Museums in Tennessee

Discover 17 unusual museums in Tennessee.

Bon Aqua, Tennessee

Johnny Cash’s “One Piece at a Time” Cadillac

A fictional Coupe DeVille built by hand and gifted to the Man in Black himself.

Smoky Mountain Knife Works

Sevierville, Tennessee

Smoky Mountain Knife Works

While knives are the main feature in this store, visitors will also find dinosaur bones and meteorites.

Cordell Hull Birthplace Museum.

Byrdstown, Tennessee

Cordell Hull Birthplace Museum

The longest-serving U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner was born in this humble cabin.

Courthouse.

Dayton, Tennessee

Rhea County Courthouse

The site of the Scopes Trial contains a small exhibit dedicated to the famous case.

Manchester, Tennessee

Old Stone Fort

This limestone outcropping was once a ceremonial site for ancient Native Americans.

Clinton, Tennessee

Asa Jackson’s Perpetual Motion Machine

This improbable contraption was passed down through five generations of industrious Tennesseans.

D Block.

Petros, Tennessee

Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary

This former maximum-security prison is creepy, sobering, and supposedly haunted.

Vonore, Tennessee

Sequoyah Birthplace Museum

This museum pays tribute to the Cherokee leader who created a written language for his people.

The B-1 Flat Top at the American Museum of Science and Energy.

Oak Ridge, Tennessee

B-1 Flat Top in Oak Ridge

One of the Cemestos prefab homes built to secretly house thousands of Manhattan Project workers.

Memphis, Tennessee

Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art

The "Jade Museum" is full of thousands of intricately carved works of art made from various precious stones.

Trenton, Tennessee

Trenton Teapot Museum

The world's largest collection of porcelain "veilleuses-theiere," or night light teapots, includes four that belonged to Napoleon.

Sculpture of John Rex Gates with a Pointer and Setter behind a covey of quail exploding upward in flight

Grand Junction, Tennessee

National Bird Dog Museum

An homage to the pointers and retrievers that have long been a hunter's best friend.

The Tina Turner Museum,

Brownsville, Tennessee

Tina Turner Museum

A restored, one-room African-American schoolhouse in the diva's hometown now preserves the legacy of its most famous student.

The Jungle Room at Graceland.

Memphis, Tennessee

The Jungle Room at Graceland

Elvis's own personal tropical hideaway.

International Towing and Recovery Museum

Chattanooga, Tennessee

International Towing and Recovery Museum

This museum dedicated to an oft-overlooked support industry features a surprisingly moving brass diorama of a man being saved from a sinking car.

Salt & Pepper Shaker Museum

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Salt & Pepper Shaker Museum

Over 20,000 sets of spice shakers reveal the surprisingly telling history of our most basic spices.