These 50 States: Tennessee
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This is the fourth in an ongoing series of posts about state shaped patches. Previous entries have covered state shaped patches from North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
None of the seven lodges currently or formerly attached to councils headquarted in TN issued patches in the shape of this state. However two lodges, Wa-Hi-Nasa 111 and Pellissippi 230, prominently used the state’s shape in patch designs.
At least three lodges from outside of Tennessee issued patches with this states shape. They were for the 1992 and 2000 NOACs, both held at the University of Tennessee.
Cuyahoga 17 used the shape of Tennessee on the bottom parts of their 2000 NOAC sets, listed as S49+X5 and S50+X6.
Talligewi 62, headquarted in Louisville, KY, paid homage to the state of Tennessee with their 2000 NOAC patches. Blue Book lists these as the lodge’s X5 and X6.
The conference that year was held at the University of Tennessee. In recognition of that school the X5 was an orange monochrome patch, using the same design as on the orange bordered X6. Orange is one of UT’s school colors.
It would appear there were some artistic issues with these patches as the proportions of the patches are not really a good representation of the shape of Tennessee. The east-west length of the state seems to be significantly compressed here.
The NOAC was actually held at UT on two other occasions before 2000. In 1992 Tisquantum 164 from Massachusetts honored this state with their NOAC issues. Blue Book lists these as the lodge’s J8, X2 and X3.
As with Talligewi’s issues eight years later, the dimensions of the state were compressed probably for artistic reasons.
The shape of Tennessee also features prominently in three flaps issued by Tennessee lodge. These are the S31 from Wa-Hi-Nasa 111 and the S35 and S36 from Pellissippi 230.
Interestingly enough these flaps are also the 1992 NOAC issues.
Of all these patches only Wa-Hi-Nasa’s flap shows the dimensions of this state with a reasonable degree of accuracy.
All this Tennessee orange is making this UNC fan ill! Have I missed any?
An update is that Pellissippi Lodge #230 issued a jacket patch in April, 2007 in recognition of the lodge hosting the 2007 conclave at Camp Buck Tom’s. The jacket patch is in the shape of the Volunteer State and of course orange/white colors are prominently featured. I am a novice at trying to classify patches, but it should be either a j5 or p5. I will try to get a scan to John so he can load it to oaimages.com. While I don’t have any dupes of it to trade, I have other #230 items to swap or sell. Thanks. Frank Callaway
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