Rose Center’s Sen. Herbert Walters History Museum houses a collection of historical items significant to Hamblen County, from the Murrell Flying Machine to the Morris Family Bible.

This month another such donation came from Karen Nunan, President of the Hamblen County Genealogical Society.

The collection of 197 postcards written to Miss Katie Gray, of Morristown, between 1906 and 1914, was discovered in an estate in Minnesota in 2024 and sent to the Hamblen County Genealogical Society.

The connection to Hamblen County is this: Miss Gray was a teacher in Hamblen County for 46 years, and principal of the former Rose School for 23 years. Nunan believed it would be fitting to return them to the school, which is now Rose Center, after thoroughly researching the senders. She found that some were from family, and others from former students.

Nunan won a Publication Excellence Award from the East Tennessee Historical Society for an article she published in “Tennessee Ancestors,” titled, “Katie’s Cards Come Home.” The postcards have been assembled in a new album and will be on view in Rose Center’s history museum.