Alumna Kate Holt Gunn works behind-the-scenes to preserve history
Gunn works at the Tennessee State Museum to share history while protecting fragile artifacts.
By Janel Shoun-Smith |
Anna Kate Holt Gunn (BA ’20) is a self-described “Polk Academy kid.”
She grew up in Columbia, the site of President James K. Polk’s home, now a historic site and museum, and attended the home’s summer camp for students, Polk Academy, several times. She also interned at the home long before she transplanted to Lipscomb University to obtain her degree in history.
“The Polk home will always have a special place in my heart,” said Gunn, who landed her first job out of college there as curator of collections. That proved to be a jumping-off point to become associate registrar at the Tennessee State Museum.
Registrars are the collection managers who install and take down exhibits, arrange the loans of artifacts and ensure proper packaging and storage for the museum’s collection items, including a cane that belonged to Gunn’s favorite president, James K. Polk.
Gunn co-authored a book on Polk.
She was able to hold and pack up that cane, ensuring its safety and security as it was moved to eventually be displayed at Nashville’s new Capitol Visitor Center and Museum, to open in 2027.
“It’s almost an out-of-body experience because you can’t believe you are holding history in your hands,” said Gunn. “I’m honored to be a part of this and to be able to preserve it for the next generation.”
At the museum’s Rosa Parks Boulevard gallery location, Gunn works behind the scenes to determine how to exhibit artifacts in the museum while also keeping them safe and undamaged, she makes arrangements to loan artifacts out and oversees the museum’s State Office Art Program, which loans historic art to legislators for their offices.
Among the museum’s historic artifacts are a collection of Civil War flags, sculptures by William Edmonson (the first African American artist to have a solo exhibition at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art) and items related to all three presidents from Tennessee: a hat and sword worn by Andrew Jackson, a coat made by Andrew Johnson and the cane belonging to James Polk.
Among more recent artifacts, Gunn says with a note of reverence, that she was able to pack up a pair of “Ms. Dolly Parton’s shoes” that had been loaned to the museum.
The Tennessee State Museum public galleries on Rosa Park Blvd.
Upon starting her position in 2024, Gunn became the lead registrar for the museum’s America 250 exhibit, showing throughout this anniversary year. She assessed the condition of the artifacts and recommended both if and how they should be used in the exhibit, based on their current condition and fragility, she said.
Gunn looks for deterioration of any kind, such as holes, tears or water stains, and then carefully documents the item’s condition for future historians’ use, she said. She also works with packing artifacts safely for return to storage, such as using Tyvek instead of paper to avoid potential water damage when packing a textile. Bugs can chew holes through a textile and flammable objects must be kept out of certain areas, she said.
For one item in the America 250 exhibit, a dress from the early 1800s that is particularly fragile, Gunn worked with a whole team to figure out the best way to get it onto a mannequin for display without damaging the dress.
She is also working to prepare and move items destined for the new Capitol Visitor Center, to open in 2027.
Gunn was well-prepared for her career through her American history courses at Lipscomb, a graduate degree from Middle Tennessee State University and her first job at the Polk home. There she co-curated a museum exhibit in 2022-2023 along with Lipscomb’s Elizabeth Gentry Brown Chair in History Tim Johnson on the Mexican American War, his specialty.
“When visitors come to tour the home, there are usually a lot of questions about the Mexican-American War,” said Gunn in 2024. “Because that war was between the American Revolution and the Civil War, it often gets lost in history.”
The Polk home exhibit, co-curated by Gunn, that won a 2023 Tennessee Association of Museums Award of Excellence.
Polk is known for extending the territory of the United States through the Mexican-American War, annexing the Republic of Texas, the Oregon Territory and the Mexican Cession after winning the war.
Together, Gunn and Johnson collected artifacts from scratch by reaching out to the Tennessee State Museum and the Tennessee State Library. They also worked their own networks, finding private collectors who were willing to loan artifacts. The 20 to 30 artifacts in the exhibit included documents, weaponry, letters, daguerreotypes and a war medal.
The exhibit, “Shaping A Nation: Tennessee Volunteers & the Mexican-American War,” won a 2023 Tennessee Association of Museums Award of Excellence.
Besides her first love, President Polk, Gunn also enjoys researching the Tudor dynasty in England and wrote her master’s thesis on the history of mental health care in America.
During her time working at the Polk home, Gunn also co-authored a book, James K. Polk Home and Museum, through Arcadia Publishing. She and two co-workers at the historic home wrote the work exploring Polk’s life, marriage and presidency through photographs, portraits, letters and other images and stories.