Joshua Caldwell graduated from East Tennessee University in 1875. He studied law in his father’s office and was admitted to the bar in 1877. He was city attorney of Knoxville for eight years, prepared a compilation of the city charter and city ordinances, was Judge Advocate General of Tennessee on the staff of Governor Turney, was a lecturer in the Law Department of the university, was a UT Trustee from 1877 to 1886, and was president of the Alumni Association from 1894 until his death in 1909. In 1895 the university conferred upon him the master’s of arts degree (honorary). He founded the Irving Club shortly before the turn of the century and served as its president until his death. He published two books: Studies in the Constitutional History of Tennessee (1895) and Sketches of theBench and Bar of Tennessee (1898).