East Tennessee Historical Society

Abbreviation	ETHS
Predecessor	East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society (c. 1834–1852)
Formation	May 5, 1834 (1834-05-05)
Type	Historical society
Headquarters	Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Coordinates	35°57′51″N 83°55′04″W / 35.96411°N 83.91780°W / 35.96411; -83.91780Coordinates: 35°57′51″N 83°55′04″W / 35.96411°N 83.91780°W / 35.96411; -83.91780
Region served	East Tennessee, Southern Appalachia
President	Joe Emert
Executive Director	Cherel Henderson
Main organ	Journal of East Tennessee History
Website	easttnhistory.org

The East Tennessee Historical Society (ETHS), headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of East Tennessee history, the preservation of historically significant artifacts, and educating the citizens of Tennessee. The Society also operates a museum and museum shop in the East Tennessee History Center on Gay Street in downtown Knoxville. The East Tennessee Historical Society was established in 1834, only 38 years after the establishment of the state of Tennessee, to record the history of the development and settlement of the area.

The East Tennessee Historical and Antiquarian Society was founded by early Tennessee historian J. G. M. Ramsey (1797–1884), who was concerned that many of the state's early pioneers were dying off, and sought to archive their papers and correspondence. The first meeting of the Society was held on May 5, 1834. East Tennessee College president William B. Reese was elected as the first president. The executive committee included Ramsey's brother-in-law John Hervey Crozier and stepbrother Thomas William Humes. Ramsey, as the Society's recording secretary, gradually acquired a sizeable collection of papers and correspondence from early Tennesseans such as William Blount, John Sevier, Samuel Wear, Alexander Outlaw, and James Hubbert. The "Antiquarian" had been dropped from the Society's name by 1852.

Ramsey kept the Society's archives at his plantation, Mecklenburg, just east of Knoxville. During the Civil War, Ramsey was a very vocal Confederate and secessionist, and was forced to flee when the Union Army occupied Knoxville in 1863, leaving behind his library and the Society's archives. An arsonist (allegedly hired by Ramsey's rival, William "Parson" Brownlow) burned Mecklenburg, effectively destroying the archives. By the end of the war, the Society had largely disintegrated.