Our first meeting of 2026 is coming up Sunday afternoon, February 15 at 3pm at Hiwassee River Heritage Center. Meetings are open to the public.

.

Our Guest will be Matt Adams. Matt is the Chairman of the Robert L. Golden Institute of Art and History. He is a history student at UTC and has an Associate of History from Chattanooga State Community College. Matt spent more than a decade in the US Army where he taught several classes on military history. After leaving the Army he Started the Golden Institute which is a nonprofit that loans out historic artifacts to bridge the divide between the present and the past for people of all ages.

Matt’s program, "Letters to Home -Pvt. John Robson and the letter writing in the Civil War", will discuss a letter that Private Robson wrote to a friend in Ohio while he was stationed in Charleston, Tennessee. It will more broadly discuss the important role that letter writing played for everyday people and soldiers during the war. It will be accompanied by the presentation of the letter as a loan to Hiwassee River Heritage Center.