The Walker Sisters. Image courtesy of Great Smoky Mountains National Park Archives.

KNOXVILLE — A Brown Bag Lecture will be held at noon on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 South Gay Street. This free lecture will feature The Walker Sisters, well known for their fight to remain in their Little Greenbriar home long after Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened. Continuing their mountain traditions, the five unmarried sisters lived much as their great-grandparents had done, growing food and sewing their clothes. As their fame spread, their home became a favorite stop for tourists willing to make the long walk to the cabin. After the death of the last sister in 1952, the national park packed and inventoried the items in the cabin. Merikay Waldvogel was invited to view their textiles, coverlets, and quilts for a magazine article.

Merikay Waldvogel was born in St. Louis, MO. She studied languages in college and taught ESL in Chicago before moving to Knoxville, in the late 1970s. Her first book Quilts of Tennessee resulted from the state quilt survey she and Bets Ramsey conducted in the 1980s. Her next books, Soft Covers for Hard Times and Patchwork Souvenirs of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, focused on quiltmaking during the Great Depression. Childhood Treasures: Quilts Made By and For Children is her latest. She wrote an article in Smokies Life (Vol 1 #1) called “A Quilt Historian Gets Her Wish: A Day with the Walker Sisters' Collection.” In 2009, she was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame.

The lecture is in conjunction with the new feature exhibit, Woven of Wood: East Tennessee Baskets, 1880-1940, on display at the Museum of East Tennessee History until June 1, 2014. The exhibit features a selection of baskets from the Walker family. The program is sponsored by the Harriet Z. Albers Memorial Fund and is free and open to the public. The lecture will begin at noon at the East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville. Guests are invited to bring a “Brown Bag” lunch and enjoy the lecture. The event is free and everyone is welcome. Soft drinks will be available for purchase. For more information on the lecture, exhibitions, or museum hours, call 865-215-8824 or visit the website at www.EastTNHistory.org.