The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The most important source for the photographs included inthis book was the work of Knoxville photographer James E. (Jim) Thompson, whose photographs of the Great Smoky Mountains are credited with helping to persuade Congress to authorize the creation of the park. Steve Cotham, author of Two Centuries of Knox County, Tennessee: A Celebration in Photographs, is the manager of the East Tennessee History Center's Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection.