Jefferson Street Sound Museum – Highlights the musical legacy of Historical Jefferson Street, which was once Nashville’s prime thoroughfare for Black culture and commerce. In the 1960s, the construction of Interstate 40 split the area surrounding Jefferson Street, bulldozing many of its best music rooms.
Fisk University Galleries – Aaron Douglas Gallery, Carl Van Vechten Art Gallery, Fisk Special Collections & Archives
Frist Art Museum – A non-collecting museum that hosts 12–15 exhibitions from some of the most prestigious collections in the world, as well as award-winning shows organized in-house.
Meharry Medical College – A private historically black medical school founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College; it was the first medical school for African Americans in the South.
Tennessee State Museum – Free and open to the public. Visitors are invited to experience Tennessee history, art, and culture from through permanent exhibits including: First Peoples, Forging a Nation, Civil War & Reconstruction, Change & Challenge, and Tennessee Transforms.
Lane Motor Museum – Home to the largest European collection in the U.S. The vehicles date from the early 1900s all the way up to modern day and feature a varied collection of microcars, amphibious vehicles, military vehicles, alternative fuel vehicles, prototypes, one-of-a-kind vehicles and motorcycles.
Scholarly Articles in Urban Studies on Nashville, TN
Winders, J. (2013). Nashville in the new millennium: Immigrant settlement, urban transformation, and social belonging. Russell Sage Foundation.
Fisher, R. (Ed.). (2009). The people shall rule: ACORN, community organizing, and the struggle for economic justice. Vanderbilt University Press.
Gupta, J. (2022). Civic pivot: Smoothing the politics of race and place through arts and culture in Nashville, Tennessee. Journal of Urban Affairs, 44(4-5), 748-767.
Hatfield, K. H. (2018). How the Music City Is Losing Its Soul: Gentrification in Nashville and How Historic Preservation Could Hinder the Process (Doctoral dissertation, Middle Tennessee State University).
Johansson, O. (2007). Ten people can’t run this city anymore: Neoliberalism and governance change in Nashville, Tennessee. southeastern geographer, 47(2), 298-319.
Metz, N., & Burdina, M. (2018). Neighbourhood income inequality and property crime. Urban Studies, 55(1), 133-150.
Miller, W. J. (2015). A model for identifying gentrification in East Nashville, Tennessee. University of Kentucky: Theses and Dissertations.
Nation, M., Christens, B. D., Bess, K. D., Shinn, M., Perkins, D. D., & Speer, P. W. (2020). Addressing the problems of urban education: An ecological systems perspective. Journal of Urban Affairs, 42(5), 715-730.
Walton, C. D. (2017). Demolishing an American Ghetto: How Neoliberalism is Reinventing Life and Labor in Nashville, Tennessee.
Winders, J. (2008). An “incomplete” picture? Race, Latino migration, and urban politics in Nashville, Tennessee. Urban Geography, 29(3), 246-263.
Non-fiction Books on Nashville
Hoobler, James A. 2008. A guide to historic Nashville, Tennessee. Charleston, SC: History Press.
Zepp, George R. 2009. Hidden History of Nashville. Charleston, SC: History Press.
