Title: History of the Cherokee Indians Manuscript

Date/Date Range :   1935

Extent: 1.0 linear feet

Abstract:

This collection consists of a manuscript for a book entitled History of the Cherokee Indians, written in 1935 by Penelope Johnson Allen. It documents the history of the Cherokee Indians in the Southeastern United States and their dealings with white settlers from the 1770s until their removal to Indian Territory in the late 1830s.

Call number: MS-0086

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

Collection is property of Special Collections.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], History of the Cherokee Indians Manuscript, MS-0086. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists a single folder.

Penelope Van Dyke Johnson was born on October 27, 1886, in Chattanooga, Tennessee to James Whiteside and Sue Coffin (Cleague) Johnson. After graduating for Chattanooga High School in 1904, she attended Western College in Oxford, Ohio. On February 17, 1909, she married Samuel Boyd Allen of Knoxville, Tenn., and on July 31, 1911, the couple's daughter, Penelope Van Dyke Allen, arrived.

Allen enjoyed many different careers, including as a society editor, advertising salesman, political writer, and sports reporter for the Chattanooga News from 1919-1923. She actively campaigned for woman's suffrage and in 1922 narrowly lost a seat in the Tennessee State Legislature. In 1923, she began work as a traveling advertising agent of the Chattanooga Medicine Company. From 1933-1937, Allen wrote for the Chattanooga Times Magazine feature "Leaves from the Family Tree" , which she published as a book in 1982.

During the 1920s, Allen became state historian for the Daughters of the American Revolution in Tennessee, and in the 1930s she directed the gathering of local records for the Works Progress Administration. As an authority on the Cherokee Indians, she developed a large collection of Cherokee books, manuscripts, letters, and other documents, and published several articles and the book History of the Cherokee Indians . Allen wrote several other books, including Historic Chattanooga, A Guide Book , and Tennessee Soldiers in the Revolution .

Penelope Johnson Allen died on January 9, 1985, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

This collection consists of a manuscript for a book entitled History of the Cherokee Indians, written in 1935 by Penelope Johnson Allen. It documents the history of the Cherokee Indians in the Southeastern United States and their dealings with white settlers from the 1770s until their removal to Indian Territory in the late 1830s.

• Allen, Penelope Johnson.
• Tennessee -- History.
• Cherokee Indians -- History.