Middle Tennessee Region-Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA): TenneSippi Biennale: Middle Tennessee/Mississippi Joint Meeting 2019

Please reserve space

for Friday tours, Saturday presentations, and Saturday lunch

FRIDAY, JUNE 7
Set your GPS for zip code 38635! Consider arriving in time for lunch on the Square.
Meet at the Kate Freeman Art Gallery at 1 pm for an afternoon of guided tours featuring several Holly Springs landmarks and historic homes, including:

Finley Place (Jones-Shuford House, 285 East Falconer Avenue)
Montrose (335 Salem Avenue)
Burton Place (248 South Memphis Street)
Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery (300 East College Avenue • katefreemanclark.org)
Yellow Fever Martyrs Church & Museum (305 East College Avenue • yellowfevermartyrs.com)
Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum (220 North Randolph Street • idabwellsmuseum.org)

Admission to all six locations is $45 per person.

Finley Place

Finley Place (1859) is a two-story Greek Revival flanking-gable frame home, with a two-story single-bay pedimented portico supported by octagonal columns, the trademark of famed local architect Spires Bolling. During the Civil War, Union soldiers under Grant’s command occupied the house. Kate Freeman Clark painted the front portico and columns of the house in her painting known as “Shuford House.”

Montrose

Montrose (1861), maintained by the Holly Springs Garden Club, is a two-story flanking-gable brick Greek Revival mansion, with a monumental tetrastyle portico, and cast iron Corinthian columns. Interior features of the house include a spiral stairway, marble mantel pieces, parquet floors and ornate ceiling medallions

Burton Place

With both Federal and Greek Revival architecture details, Burton Place (1848) is a two-story flanking-gable brick structure with a front portico supported by Tuscan paired piers, and main entrance with transom and sidelights. Burton Place sits on its original antebellum city lot, rare for most Holly Spring houses, and includes slaves' quarters.

Ida B. Wells

Teacher, author and journalist Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was known nationally and internationally as a “crusader for justice,”raising awareness of oppression of African Americans and women. She was orphaned at 16 when her parents died as victims of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878. The museum is located in the Spires Bolling House: Ida was born on the property where her mother was a famous cook and her father, a former slave, was a carpenter.

Yellow Fever Martyrs
Church and Museum

Before August of 1878, Holly Springs was known as the “City of Flowers,” a prosperous antebellum city that had survived the Civil War and Reconstruction. Three months later, over 300 citizens were dead and the town was on the brink of extinction. The old St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, a heavy timber-framed, clapboarded church with Gothic styling, now houses exhibits and artifacts that tell the story of the 1878 Yellow Fever Epidemic.

When Kate Freeman Clark (1875-1957) returned to her ancestral home in Holly Springs, few knew that she had spent 29 years in New York among the world-class art masters of the day, and had become an accomplished painter. What townspeople found out within months of her death would be hard to fathom -- that the spinster they knew as a typical Southern lady had created over 1,200 paintings and drawings, and they were being given to the enjoyment of Holly Springs along with her home and funds to build a "museum of fine and social arts."

Spires Bolling House

Afternoon tour, with guides, will run from 1 pm to approximately 5 pm.

Meet/park at the Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery (300 East College Avenue) to carpool to our first four stops, then we'll return to the gallery to walk to our final locations. The gallery is directly across the street from the Yellow Fever Martyrs Church.

Portrait of Kate Freeman Clark by
William Merritt Chase (1902)

6:30 p.m.
Dutch-treat group dinner: A taste of Holly Springs buffet at Southern Eatery (130 East College Avenue / next to the Court Square Inn)

Note: We'll have the restaurant to ourselves; you may bring your own wine, beer, or spirits

SATURDAY, JUNE 8

The JASNA program will run from 9:30 am to 3 pm.

Registration fee (includes morning and afternoon refreshments) is $30 per person.

The Apothecary at Court Square Inn

(132 East College Avenue • hollyspringsinn.com)

Located just below Court Square Inn, at the corner of East College Avenue and South Market Street. Public parking available in the square or in the lot on Market Street, beside Buford's Furniture store.

9:30 a.m. -- Meet-and-greet with light refreshments (coffee, hot tea, juice, muffins)

10:00 a.m. -- Presentation by Kim Wilson
One Very Superior Party: In Which Mrs. Elton Shews the Inhabitants of Highbury "How Everything Ought to Be Arranged"
What does Mrs. Elton mean when she criticizes the parties held at Highbury, and what sort of party would she give? Informative and amusing illustrations of Regency-era parties, games, foods, and table settings will show participants what Mrs. Elton’s evening party would have looked like and how they can easily recreate it.

The Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery

11:30 a.m. -- Lunch at the Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, catered by Belles and Books: $20 per person

Note: The gallery is four blocks [.3 mile] from the Apothecary

Lunch menu includes chicken salad, marinated vegetables, pimento cheese sandwiches, fresh fruit, tea, and brownies (vegetarian plate upon request). Reservations necessary.

Return to the Apothecary for afternoon JASNA presentation

1:30 p.m. -- Presentation by Kristen Miller Zohn
Portraits in Profiles in Jane Austen's World
During Austen's era, silhouettes and other profile portraits in imitation of Greek vase painting and Roman coinage were particularly fashionable. This slide lecture explores examples from Austen's family and in her work; the pervasiveness of the format and the association of these portraits with the pseudo-science of physiognomy.

3:00 pm -- JASNA event concludes, but stay in Holly Springs for shopping and more dining!

For those able to stay later in Holly Springs, join us for a late-afternoon excursion to historic Hill Crest Cemetery (199 South Market) or 7 pm Dutch-treat dinner at Marshall Steakhouse (2379 Hwy. 178 West; reservations required). Details announced Saturday morning.

Biennale 2019 Speakers
Kristen Miller Zohn
Art historian Kristen Miller Zohn is Executive Director of the Costume Society of America
Society of America, an organization dedicated to advancing the global understanding of all aspects of dress and appearance. She also serves as Curator of Collections and Exhibitions for the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, MS, which houses a collection of European and American art, Native American baskets, British Georgian silver, and Japanese woodblock prints. She is a frequent lecturer on portraiture and decorative arts of the 19th century.

Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson is a writer, speaker, editor, tea lover, culinary historian, gardening enthusiast, and a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. She is the award-winning author of At Home with Jane Austen, Tea with Jane Austen, and In the Garden with Jane Austen.