Matt Shafer Powell

Hundreds of Civil War experts from around the country are in Knoxville this week to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the war's end.   The four-day conference features speeches, tours, music and all forms of historical discussion, specifically relating to the end of the Civil War and Tennessee's transition to peace time.

This week, Ellen Turner,one of the founders of Knoxville’s fabled Love Kitchen, passed away at the age of 87.   Since 1986, Ellen and her twin sister Helen Ashe have been providing meals, comfort and care to some of Knoxville’s less fortunate residents.  In the meantime, they’ve emerged as local folk heroes with an international following, even appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show.  But those who know the sisters say the notoriety never changed them--- they remained humbly committed to their mission of feeding Knoxville’s poor. 

The hundreds of tuba and euphonium players and aficionados who are descending upon Knoxville this week have one thing in common:

They love the tuba.  

And not in a "gosh, that's so cute" kind of way.  They respect and admire the instrument's broad range, its smooth tones and its potential as a tool for awe-inspiring virtuoso performances.

On Saturday, March 14, six antique automobiles from the estate of the late U.S. Senator Howard K. Baker, Jr. will go up for auction.  The proceeds of the auction will be donated to the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee.  

WUOT's Matt Shafer Powell spoke with Blake Wilson of Furrow Auction Company and Baker's daughter Cissy to learn more about the Senator's passion for his cars.  

The University of Tennessee's McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture recently received a gift of 191 maps, some dating from the late 16th century.  Many of the older maps blend artistic renderings of sea monsters, sailing ships and native peoples with practical depictions of the physical landscape.  In short, the mapmakers put the "art" in "cartography".

That was not uncommon at the time, says Lindsey Waugh, Coordinator of Academic Programs at McClung.  "These maps represent expressions of civic pride, of national pride."

Amy-Jill Levine is a New Testament scholar who specializes in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

She's also Jewish.

"People do think it's weird that I'm a Jew and I happen to be an expert in the New Testament," she says.  "But when we think about that, Jesus is Jewish, all of his immediate followers are Jewish, the New Testament talks about Jews, so at the very basic level, studying the New Testament is studying Jewish history."