Throughout his public history career, Wallace has led and contributed to a wide range of projects in collections management, museum and historic site interpretation and programming, and preservation. Highlighted below are a few selected projects that represent the scope of his work and areas of proficiency.
I researched and authored a strategic plan, which assesses the collection management practices of the personnel of the Museum of Appalachia, explores options for a new Collection Management Software to meet the needs of the museum, steps to implement a new CMS, provides an outline of a Collection Management Policy, and recommends student-led projects to continuously manage museum collections.
I researched and curated the temporary exhibit Revolutionary Rutherford: the Revolutionary War’s Legacy in Rutherford County, which explores how the Revolutionary War shaped Rutherford County—from its impacts on Indigenous nations to the veterans, settlers, and enslaved African Americans who built the county’s earliest communities. It reflects on how Rutherfordians have preserved the legacy of the Revolution and offers ways for visitors to research their own “Revolutionary Legacies.”.
This digital exhibit and interactive map highlight how new funerary businesses, practices, and professionals emerged across East Tennessee from the late nineteenth century into the 1920s, discussing who had access to such services and how they were adopted. This project serves as the capstone for the “Digital Tools for Historians” course in the Fall 2025 semester.
Through a partner project between the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, the Center for Historic Preservation, and Tennessee State Parks, I created a site history, interpretive recommendations, and a cemetery preservation plan, as well as authored the content for a commemorative sign text and two interpretive signs for the McGhee-Carson Property, focused on Toco Cemetery, the on-site African American cemetery.
Through a collaborative project with Rangers Jim Lewis and John McKay at Stones River National Battlefield and Cemetery, I researched Privates Henry Harrison Whitehill and Levi M. Boyer of the 78th Pennsylvania Infantry to develop a new stop for the Hallowed Ground: Lantern Tours program, providing interpretive guidelines focused on soldiers’ experiences with death, burial, and hardship during the Civil War.
As the capstone project for Historic Research Methods taught by Dr. Aaron Treadwell, I produced a digital exhibit on the Allen Chapel AME church in Murfreesboro, TN, focused on the congregation’s role in managing the dead for Murfreesboro’s African American community. The exhibit highlighted notable funerals, other local institutions of deathcare, and the congregation’s efforts to preserve the local Benevolent Cemetery.
Through a partnership with the Center for Historic Preservation and as part of a capstone project for Essentials in Museum Management taught by Dr. Carroll Van West, I collaborated with four students to produce the Cannonsburgh Village Museum Collections Assessment Report, surveying the collections and providing recommendations for management, interpretation, and use of space.
Originally a summer internship through the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Historic Preservation Field Practicum course and later a contract job with the firm, I produced a searchable digital catalog of the 5000+ historic and contemporary architectural drawings produced by R. H. Hunt, B. F. Hunt, William Crutchfield, Robert N. Dulaney, Selmon T. Franklin, and associated firms.
As an intern in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Special Collections, I created a DACS-compliant finding aid for the “Davis (Sandy) Sandlin photographs” collection, researched and cataloged 170 historic photographs, and created digital instances of each item in ArchivesSpace.