Tom Tichenor Scrapbooks, ca. 1947-ca. 1988.
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Organized into two series: I. Scrapbooks; II. Miscellaneous.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: The collection consists of three scrapbooks and miscellany related to the life and career of Nashville puppeteer Tom Tichenor (1923-1992). Materials include photographs, newsclippings, ephemera, articles, correspondence, and several original writings of Tom Tichenor. The articles are primarily from "The Nashville Tennessean" and "The Nashville Banner" newspapers and pertain to Tichenor's career and his puppet theatre productions while an employee of the Children's Division, Nashville Public Library's Main Library. The photographs are generally the 8 x 10 black and white prints that accompanied the newspaper articles. The original writings, correspondence, and program fliers of original theatre productions such as "To the Moon" and "Carnivale!" provide information about the puppeteers' achievements and career. Includes sources, circa 1970's, about Diane McNabb, a former Director of the Children's Division, Nashville Public Library's Main Library.

Cite as: Tom Tichenor Scrapbooks, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library.

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code).

Source of acquisition unknown;,Acc. RT-100.

Thomas Hager Tichenor was born in Decatur, Alabama on February 10, 1923. His father, Jacob Marshall Tichenor, was of Welsh descent and earned his living as a school teacher, grocer, farmer, and carpenter. His mother, Emma Moore Tichenor, was a dressmaker. As a very young child, he came to live with his aunt Ruby Tichenor in Tennessee. Tom began his career as a puppeteer when he was an elementary school student at Tarbox School in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1938, while attending Hume-Fogg High School, he staged a production of "Puss in Boots" for the Children's Department of the Nashville Public Library's Main Library. In 1943, Tichenor joined the Army's Special Services Corps, bringing movies and stage productions to soldiers in England, France, and Germany. Upon his return to the United States in 1945, he attended college in Pennsylvania, then came home to Nashville to study at George Peabody College for Teachers. In 1947, Tichenor became a staff member with the Children's Department of the Nashville Public Library, and he began creating marionette productions to entertain children. Tichenor was a renowned puppeteer, playwright, designer, lyricist and performer in a very active career. In 1961, at the invitation of Gower Champion, Tichenor took his puppets to New York's Broadway for important roles in the musical production of "Carnival!" in a two-year run of 719 public peformances at the Imperial Theatre and the Winter Garden Theatre. Returning to Nashville at the end of 1967, he joined the Nashville Public Library Story Hour and Puppet Playhouse and soon created entertaining productions with such unforgettable puppet and marionette characters such as Carrot Top, Renardo the Fox, Marco Polo Bear, Rumplestiltskin, Bookworm, Felicia Fieldmouse, Witchie and Poindexter. At his retirement in 1988, Mr. Tichenor donated many of his original marionettes and puppets to the Nashville Public Library, to continue the legacy of bringing the world of puppetry to children. Tichenor passed away on November 18, 1992, at the Alvin C. York Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and was interred in the Nashville National Cemetery in Madison, Tennessee.

In English.

Finding aid available in the repository.

Unknown provenance, the scrapbooks may have been compiled by Nashville Public Library staff, with the manuscript sources originating from Tom Tichenor.

No further accruals are expected.

Book jacket image digital identifier: Tich-Scrap1 - Tich & Jack Rabbit