John Rice Irwin

John Rice Irwin (December 11, 1930 – January 16, 2022) was an American cultural historian, and founder of the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee.

His interest in history began at an early age, and was inspired by his grandparents to start a museum.

While he was an infant, Irwin and his family were forced to move because their land would be appropriated and flooded for the Norris Dam.

My daily habits and my total life of the last 40 to 50 years have been devoted to preserving the history of our people's struggle in Appalachia.

As in the past, I will be playing music and entertaining guests from all over the country, indeed, the world, who visit the museum.

My love for this place will continue, with my work being more directed to my writing and research – things that I have too long neglected and that I have promised my publishers I would do.

At a public auction in the early 1960s, he realized that the sales transactions were separating the artifacts of the past from the stories that his grandparents told.

[2][5] A person attending the sale told him that he was going to make a coffee table from the old spinning wheel he had just purchased.

"[9] Meanwhile, he spent $4 at the auction to buy an old horse shoeing box that had been found in the Clinch River in the aftermath of the deadly Big Barren Creek Flood of 1916.

His collection grew from that beginning, as he began to travel around the countryside to find and "save the past" in the form of artifacts.