Born near Philadelphia, Joseph Anderson was a Revolutionary War soldier; one of the judges of the Territory South of the River Ohio, of which Knoxville was the capital; a long-term US Senator from Tennessee; and the first comptroller of the United States Treasury. In 1794, when the Territorial Assembly issued the charter establishing Blount College, he was named as one of the founding trustees. A portrait of Joseph Anderson was given to UT by his descendants—Charles Scott of Port Arthur, Texas, and his sister, Mrs. Fred (Alice Scott) McFee of Concord, Tennessee, in 1976.