History of Memphis, Tennessee - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The area around Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, was first settled by the Mississippian Culture

Mississippian culture

The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....

and then by the Chickasaw

Chickasaw

The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...

Indian tribe

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

. European exploration came years later, with Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto

Hernando de Soto (explorer)

Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who, while leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, was the first European documented to have crossed the Mississippi River....

and French explorers led by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

The modern city of Memphis was founded in 1819, the city was named after the ancient capital

Memphis, Egypt

Memphis was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt. Its ruins are located near the town of Helwan, south of Cairo.According to legend related by Manetho, the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes around 3000 BC. Capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, it remained an...

of Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

on the Nile River. In the early 20th century, Memphis grew into the world's largest spot cotton market and the world's largest hardwood lumber market. During the 1960s the city was at the center of civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

issues. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...

was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel.

Many notable blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

musicians grew up in and around the Memphis and northern Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

area. These included such musical greats as Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...

, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf

Howlin' Wolf

Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....

and Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...

Early history

From about 10,000 BCE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

, Paleo-Indians and later Archaic-Indians lived as communities of hunter-gatherer

Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...

s in the area that covers the modern day southern United States. Approximately 800 CE

Common Era

to 1600 CE, the Mississippi River Delta

Mississippi River Delta

The Mississippi River Delta is the modern area of land built up by alluvium deposited by the Mississippi River as it slows down and enters the Gulf of Mexico...

was populated by tribes of the Mississippian culture

Mississippian culture

, a mound-building Native American people that had developed in the late Woodland Indian

Woodland period

The Woodland period of North American pre-Columbian cultures was from roughly 1000 BCE to 1000 CE in the eastern part of North America. The term "Woodland Period" was introduced in the 1930s as a generic header for prehistoric sites falling between the Archaic hunter-gatherers and the...

period. The Tipton Phase

Tipton Phase

The Tipton Phase is an archaeological phase in southwestern Tennessee of the Late Mississippian culture. Other contemporaneous groups in the area include the Parkin Phase, Walls Phase, Menard Phase, and the Nodena Phase. The Tipton Phase is the last prehistoric people to inhabit the area before the...

people were a local expression of the Mississippian culture. They inhabited the region of modern day Tipton

Tipton County, Tennessee

Tipton County is a county located on the western end of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 51,271. Its county seat is Covington. Tipton County is part of the Memphis, TN–MS–AR Metropolitan Statistical Area, centered on Shelby County, which borders Tipton on...

, Lauderdale and Shelby

Shelby County, Tennessee

Shelby County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the state's largest both in terms of population and geographic area, with a population of 927,644 at the 2010 census...

Counties during the time of first contact with Europeans, at the arrival of the de Soto Expedition. By the end of the Mississippian period the land was claimed and populated by the Chickasaw tribe

Chickasaw

The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...

. The exact origins of the Chickasaw are uncertain. Noted historian Horatio Cushman indicates that the Chickasaw, along with the Choctaw, may have had origins in present-day Mexico and migrated north. When Europeans first encountered them, the Chickasaws were living in villages in what is now Mississippi, with a smaller number in the area of Savannah Town, South Carolina

Savannah Town, South Carolina

Savannah Town, South Carolina was first observed in the 1670s as a Westo village, located on the Savannah River below the fall line in present day Aiken County. The Savannah displaced the Westos in a 1679-1680 trade war, and the town bore their name on a 1685 Joel Gascoyne Plat of the Province of...

. The Chickasaws may have been immigrants to the area and may not have been descendants of the pre-historic Mississippian culture

Mississippian culture

. Their oral history supports this, indicating they moved along with the Choctaws from west of the Mississippi in pre-history.

European explorers - 1500s/1600s

European exploration came years later, with Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto

Hernando de Soto (explorer)

believed to have visited what is now the Memphis area as early as the 1540s.

By the 1680s, French explorers led by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle built Fort Prudhomme

Fort Prudhomme

Fort Prudhomme, or Prud'homme, was a simple stockade fortification, constructed on one of the Chickasaw Bluffs of the Mississippi River in West Tennessee by Cavelier de La Salle's French canoe expedition of the Mississippi River Basin in 1682...

in the vicinity, the first European settlement in what would become Memphis, predating English settlements in East Tennessee

East Tennessee

East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...

by more than 70 years. Fort Assumption

Fort Assumption

Fort Assumption was a French fortification constructed in 1739 on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff on the Mississippi River at present day Memphis, Tennessee...

was a French fortification constructed in 1739 on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff

Chickasaw Bluff

The term Chickasaw Bluff refers to high ground rising about above the flood plain between Fulton in Lauderdale County, Tennessee and Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee. Composed of eroded Pleistocene loess over Pliocene glacial gravel, they are slide prone...

on the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville

Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville

Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienvillepronounce] was a colonizer, born in Montreal, Quebec and an early, repeated governor of French Louisiana, appointed 4 separate times during 1701-1743. He was a younger brother of explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville...

's French army. The fort was used as a base against the Chickasaw

Chickasaw

The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...

in the abortive Campaign of 1739

Chickasaw Wars

The Chickasaw Wars were fought in the 18th century between the Chickasaw allied with the British against the French and their allies the Choctaws and Illini. The Province of Louisiana extended from Illinois to New Orleans, and the French fought to secure their communications along the Mississippi...

.

Despite such early outposts, the land comprising present-day Memphis remained in a largely unorganized territory throughout most of the 18th century, while the boundaries of what would become Tennessee continued to evolve from its parent — the Carolina Colony, later North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

and South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

. In 1796, the site became the westernmost point of the newly admitted state of Tennessee. However, West Tennessee was at that time owned by the Chickasaw tribe.

Foundation - 1819

The area of West Tennessee became available for white settlement after the Federal Government purchased it from the Chickasaw Nation in the 1818 Jackson Purchase

Jackson Purchase (U.S. historical region)

The Jackson Purchase is a region of western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky, bounded by the Tennessee River on the east, the Ohio River on the north, and the Mississippi River on the west, that was ceded to the United States by the Chickasaw Peoples in 1818...

. Memphis was founded on May 22, 1819 by a group of investors, John Overton

John Overton (judge)

John Overton was an advisor of Andrew Jackson, a judge at the Superior Court of Tennessee, a banker and political leader.Overton was born in Louisa County, Virginia...

, James Winchester

James Winchester

James Winchester was an officer in the American Revolutionary War and a brigadier general during the War of 1812. He commanded the American forces at the Battle of Frenchtown, which led to the Massacre of the River Raisin....

, and Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...

, and was incorporated as a city in 1826. The city was named after the ancient capital

Memphis, Egypt

of Egypt

Egypt

on the Nile River. The founders planned for a large city to be built on the site and laid out a plan featuring a regular grid of streets interrupted by four town squares, to be named Exchange, Market, Court, and Auction. Of these Court Square, Market, and Auction remain as public parks in downtown Memphis, Exchange lying under the Cook Convention Center. The city grew as a center for transporting, grading and marketing the growing volumes of cotton produced in the nearby Mississippi delta in the antebellum era (for background, see "King Cotton

King Cotton

King Cotton was a slogan used by southerners to support secession from the United States by arguing cotton exports would make an independent Confederacy economically prosperous, and—more important—would force Great Britain and France to support the Confederacy because their industrial economy...

").

Memphis was a crossing point on the Mississippi River for Native Americans expelled from their original lands to Indian Territory

Indian Territory

The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...

on the Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...

. In 1831 Alexis De Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution . In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in...

witnessed "a numerous band of Choctaws" crossing the River at Memphis.

The cotton economy of the antebellum South depended on the forced labor of large numbers of African-American slaves

History of slavery in the United States

Slavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...

, and Memphis became a major slave market. Prior to the Civil War, one quarter of the city's population were slaves. Seeking their freedom, slaves turned to the Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...

to escape to the free states of the North, and the Memphis home of Jacob Burkle

Burkle Estate

The Burkle Estate is a historic home at 826 North Second Street in Memphis, Tennessee. It is also known as the Slavehaven. Although disputed by some historians, the Burkle Estate is claimed by some to have been part of the Underground Railroad, a secret network of way stations to help slaves escape...

was a way-station on their route to freedom.

The Gayoso House Hotel was built overlooking the Mississippi River in 1842 and became a Memphis landmark until it burned in 1899. The original Gayoso House was a first class hotel, designed by James H. Dakin

James H. Dakin

James Harrison Dakin , American architect, was the son of James and Lucy Harrison Dakin of Hudson, New York, and born in Northeast Township. He was seventh in line from the immigrant ancestor, Thomas Dakin, of Concord, Massachusetts, through Simon, of the third generation, who went to Putnam...

, a well-known architect of that era, and was appointed with the latest conveniences, including indoor plumbing with marble tubs, silver faucets and flush toilets. In 1857 the Memphis & Charleston Railroad was completed, linking the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River. Memphis was one of the two eastern termini of the Butterfield Overland Mail

Butterfield Overland Mail

The Butterfield Overland Mail Trail was a stagecoach route in the United States, operating from 1857 to 1861. It was a conduit for the U.S. mail from two eastern termini, Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri, meeting Fort Smith, Arkansas, and continuing through Indian Territory, New Mexico,...

route to California from 1857 to 1861.

Competing towns: Hopefield, AR and Randolph, TN

Hopefield, Arkansas was founded by the Spanish Governor in 1795, across from Memphis near present-day West Memphis, Arkansas. Hopefield became the eastern terminal for the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad in 1857 and prospered until the Civil War, when it was burned by Union forces in retaliation for Confederate Raids. Although Hopewell was rebuilt afterward, it was destroyed in a flood. The area of Crittenden County, Arkansas has been subject to some of the country’s most disastrous floods due the Mississippi River backing into the St. Francis River, preventing much population growth on the Arkansas side. Because of its location on a bluff, Memphis was not subject to flooding.

Randolph, Tennessee

Randolph, Tennessee

Randolph is an unincorporated rural community in Tipton County, Tennessee, United States, located on the banks of the Mississippi River. Randolph was founded in the 1820s and in 1827, the Randolph Post office was established. In the 1830s, the town became an early center of river commerce in West...

was founded at the 2nd Chickasaw Bluff

Chickasaw Bluff

above Memphis in the 1820s, and for a time was a major competitor to Memphis for commerce along the Mississippi River. However, Randolph gradually lost commerce and influence to Memphis, particularly after it was bypassed by railroad construction.

Civil War

At the time of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, Memphis was already an important regional city because of its river trade and railroad connections, particularly the Memphis and Charleston Railroad

Memphis and Charleston Railroad

The Memphis and Charleston Railroad, completed in 1857, was the first railroad in the United States to link the Atlantic Ocean with the Mississippi River. Chartered in 1846 the railroad ran from Memphis, Tennessee to Stevenson, Alabama through the towns of Corinth, Mississippi and Huntsville,...

, the only east-west rail link across the South. Tennessee seceded from the Union in June 1861 and Memphis briefly became a Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

stronghold.

Union

Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...

forces moving down the Mississippi River captured Memphis from the Confederacy in the Battle of Memphis

Battle of Memphis

The First Battle of Memphis was a naval battle fought on the Mississippi River immediately above the city of Memphis on June 6, 1862, during the American Civil War. The engagement was witnessed by many of the citizens of Memphis. It resulted in a crushing defeat for the Rebels, and marked the...

on June 6, 1862. The city remained under Union

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

control for the duration of the war, except for a dramatic raid

Second Battle of Memphis

The Second Battle of Memphis was a battle of the American Civil War occurring on August 21, 1864, in Shelby County, Tennessee.At 4:00 a.m. on August 21, 1864, Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest made a daring raid on Union-held Memphis, Tennessee, but it was not an attempt to capture the city, which...

conducted by Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He is remembered both as a self-educated, innovative cavalry leader during the war and as a leading southern advocate in the postwar years...

. Memphis became a Union supply base and continued to prosper throughout the war. During that time the Gayoso House was a Union headquarters. According to local legend, General Forrest rode his horse into the lobby seeking to capture a Union general.

Yellow fever epidemic - 1870s

Extensive yellow fever

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

epidemics in the 1870s (1873, 1878 and 1879) devastated the city. It was reported that such terror gripped the town in August 1878 that fleeing families "left their houses with the doors wide open and silver standing on the sideboards." At that time it was not understood that this fatal disease

Infectious disease

Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...

was carried by a mosquito

Mosquito

Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...

vector, so public health measures were unsuccessful. Remaining in the city to care for the sick, a number of Catholic Franciscan Sisters of Mary

Franciscan Sisters of Mary

The Franciscan Sisters of Mary is a Roman Catholic religious congregation for women based in St. Louis, Missouri that founded hospitals throughout the Midwest....

, Episcopalian nuns of the Sisterhood of St. Mary

Community of St. Mary

The Community of St. Mary is an Anglican religious order of nuns with three independent houses located in Greenwich, New York, Sewanee, Tennessee, and Mukwonago, Wisconsin...

and clergymen sacrificed themselves. So many people died or fled the epidemics that in 1879 Memphis lost its city charter, and until 1893 Memphis was governed as merely a taxing district. Robert R. Church, Sr.

Robert R. Church, Sr.

Robert Reed Church, Sr. was one of America's most profound “rags to riches“ stories. Church not only became the South's first African American millionaire, he did it after having been born a slave....

, the South's first African American millionaire, after having been born a slave was the first citizen to buy a $1,000 bond to help restore the city's charter.

Eventually improvements in sanitation, particularly the construction of an innovative sewer system designed by George E. Waring, Jr.

George E. Waring, Jr.

George E. Waring, Jr. was an American sanitary engineer and civic reformer. He was an early American designer and advocate of sewer systems that keep domestic sewage separate from storm runoff....

, removed the breeding grounds of the mosquito vector. Then, in 1887, a source of abundant and pure artesian water was found beneath the city, and in 1892 the first Mississippi River

Mississippi River

bridge at Memphis opened. As a result the city again began to prosper, and it regained its charter in 1893. In 1897, Memphis' pyramid

Pyramid

A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...

-shaped pavilion was conspicuous at the Tennessee Centennial exposition.

Until the 1940s

The Memphis Park and Parkway System

Memphis Parkway System

The Memphis Parkway System, locally known as the Parkway System, The Parkways, or simply by their individual names is a system of parkways that formed the original outer beltway around Memphis, Tennessee. They consist of South Parkway, East Parkway, and North Parkway. Designed by George Kessler,...

including Overton Park

Overton Park

Overton Park is a large, public park in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee. The park grounds contain the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis Zoo, a 9-hole golf course, Memphis College of Art, Rainbow Lake, Veterans Plaza, Greensward, and other features...

and M.L. King Riverside Park was designed as a comprehensive plan by landscape architect George Kessler

George Kessler

George Edward Kessler was a German American pioneer city planner and landscape architect.Over the course of his forty-one year career, George E. Kessler completed over 200 projects and prepared plans for 26 communities, 26 park and boulevard systems, 49 parks, 46 estates & residents, and 26 schools...

at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Memphis grew into the world's largest spot cotton market (over 40% of the nation's crop was traded here) and the world's largest hardwood lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

market. Into the 1950s, it was the world's largest mule

Mule

A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...

market. From the 1910s to the 1950s, Memphis was a hotbed of machine politics under the direction of E. H. "Boss" Crump

E. H. Crump

Edward Hull "Boss" Crump was an American politician from Memphis, Tennessee. He was mayor from 1910 through 1915, and again briefly in 1940; in the intervening years he effectively appointed the mayors.-Career:...

. During the Crump era, Memphis developed an extensive network of parks and public works as part of the national City Beautiful Movement

City Beautiful movement

The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...

.

Clarence Saunders, a Memphis inventor and entrepreneur, opened the first self-service grocery store in 1916 and founded the first supermarket chain, Piggly Wiggly

Piggly Wiggly

Piggly Wiggly is a supermarket chain operating in the Midwestern and Southern regions of the United States, run by Piggly Wiggly, LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers. The current company headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire....

. Saunders, who became very wealthy from these ventures, lost his fortune due to stock manipulations by Wall Street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

"bears", and was forced to sell his partly completed Memphis mansion, dubbed the Pink Palace

Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium

The Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium in Memphis, Tennessee, serves as the Mid-South's major science and historical museum, and features exhibits ranging from archeology to chemistry...

. The Pink Palace eventually became the City's historical and natural history museum. Other parts of the Saunders estate became the site of an upscale residential development, Chickasaw Gardens.

The storied Peabody Hotel

Peabody Hotel

The Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The hotel is well known for the famous "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop, but which make daily treks to the hotel's lobby in a daily "March of Ducks" celebration.- History :...

opened in 1923 and became a symbol of upper-class Southern elegance. In 1935, a Mississippi author wrote, "The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. The Peabody is the Paris Ritz, the Cairo Shepheard's, the London Savoy of this section. If you stand near its fountain in the middle of the lobby, where ducks waddle and turtles drowse, ultimately you will see everybody who is anybody in the Delta."

To the east of the city lay a large railroad yard with tracks of four railroads of that era. By the late 1920s the yard had become a barrier to automobile traffic and, hence, to eastward expansion of the city. In 1927 - 1928 the "Poplar Boulevard Viaduct" was constructed to span the railyards and allow eastward expansion. The viaduct was a joint effort between the City of Memphis and the railroads.

World War II - 1950s

During the Second World War, the War Department

United States Department of War

The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...

constructed large supply depots in Memphis for the Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

and the Army Air Force. The Memphis Army Depot also served as a prisoner of war camp, housing 800 Axis prisoners. By the time it closed in 1997, the Memphis Army Depot had 130 buildings on site with more than 4000000 square feet (371,612.2 m²) of enclosed industrial space. Meanwhile, in 1942, the US Navy built the Millington Naval Air Station (now the Naval Support Activity Mid-South

Naval Support Activity Mid-South

Naval Support Activity Mid-South , in Millington, Tennessee, is a base of the United States Navy. A part of the Navy Region Midwest and the Navy Installations Command, NSA Mid-South serves as the Navy’s Human Resources Center of Excellence...

) in Millington, Tennessee

Millington, Tennessee

Millington is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 10,176. Millington was the home of the recently closed Memphis Motorsports Park. It was granted the title "Flag City Tennessee" by the Tennessee State Legislature. The Naval Support Activity Mid-South is...

, just north of Memphis. This 3500 acres (14.2 km²) facility provided pilot training during World War II, and later became the major naval air technical training center for enlisted personnel aviation speciality training. It is currently used as a naval personnel center and Headquarters for the US Army Corps of Engineers Finance Center. Its flight facilities have transferred to civilian use as the Millington Regional Jetport

Millington Regional Jetport

Millington Regional Jetport , formerly known as Millington Municipal Airport, is a public airport in the city of Millington, in Shelby County, Tennessee, USA. The airport is located north of Memphis...

. The first national motel chain, Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels, formally a economy motel chain, forming part of the British InterContinental Hotels Group . It is one of the world's largest hotel chains with 238,440 bedrooms and 1,301 hotels globally. There are currently 5 hotels in the pipeline...

, was founded in Memphis by Kemmons Wilson

Kemmons Wilson

Charles Kemmons Wilson was the founder of the Holiday Inn chain of hotels.-Personal life:He was born in Osceola, Arkansas, the only child of Kemmons and Ruby "Doll" Wilson. His father was an insurance salesman who died when Kemmons was nine months old...

in 1952. His first inn was located in Berclair

Berclair, Memphis

Berclair is a district of Memphis, Tennessee. It is named after a major street in this district.-Geography:Berclair is bordered by the CSX railroad in the North; Interstate 40, Covington Pike, and Stratford Road in the East; Summer Avenue in the South and Graham Street in the West.-Development:The...

near the city limit on Summer Avenue, then the main highway to Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

Geographical Expansion

At the start of the 1950s Memphis was a compact city with boundaries were still limited compared to the sprawl

Urban sprawl

Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...

seen today. The southern boundary of the city was an irregular line starting on the Mississippi opposite President's Island

President's Island

President's Island is a peninsula on the Mississippi River in southwest Memphis, Tennessee. The city's major river port and an industrial park are located there.-History:...

, about two miles (3 km) north of Nonconnah Creek. The northern boundary was close to Chelsea Avenue, not much south of the Wolf River

Wolf River (Tennessee)

The Wolf River is a alluvial stream in western Tennessee and northern Mississippi, whose confluence with the Mississippi River was the site of various Chickasaw, French, Spanish and American communities and forts that eventually became Memphis, Tennessee....

but with an unpopulated wetland area beyond the city before reaching the Wolf River. The Eastern Boundary of the city was near Highland Street.

By the mid-1950s Memphis stretched southward to the Mississippi State Line, but only directly south of Presidents Island. Such communities as West Junction, Nonconnah

Nonconnah, Tennessee

Nonconnah, Tennessee was a populated place along Nonconnah Creek in what is now Memphis.Nonconnah was located just to the east of West Junction, Tennessee.-Sources:**2009 Rand McNally Road Atlas, p. 94...

, Raines

Raines, Tennessee

Raines, Tennessee was a southern suburb of Memphis, Tennessee located between West Junction, Tennessee and Oakville, Tennessee. As of 1950 it had a population of 300.At some point after 1958 it was incorporated into the city of Memphis.-Sources:...

and Oakville

Oakville, Tennessee

Oakville, Tennessee was a community in Tennessee located just west of the current site of the Memphis International Airport. It was centered along the Route of US 78 just a little northeast of the intersection with Getwell Road....

still remained beyond the city boundaries, with the southern city line running on the north side of Nonconnah Creek

Nonconnah Creek

Nonconnah Creek or the Nonconnah Creek Drainage Canal is a waterway in southwest Tennessee.- Route description :Nonconnah Creek starts in extreme southeastern Shelby County, Tennessee, near the town of Collierville. From there, it flows westward, forming the southern border of Germantown. The...

. On the east, most of White Station, Tennessee

White Station, Tennessee

White Station, Tennessee was an unincorporated area to the east of Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee. White Station was annexed into the city by the 1950s and became one of the main neighborhoods of East Memphis...

had been annexed. The Northern boundary of Memphis was the Wolf River.

By the mid-1960s Memphis had annexed Frayser, Tennessee on the north side of the Wolf River. It had also annexed Berclair, Tennessee and all of White Station on its eastern border, extending south-westward along Poplar Avenue, past the recently built freeway that is today designated I-240, and bordering on Germantown, Tennessee

Germantown, Tennessee

Germantown is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee. The population was 38,844 at the 2010 census.Germantown is a suburb of Memphis, bordering it to the east. Germantown's economy is dominated by the retail and commercial service sectors; there is no heavy industry in Germantown...

, Memphis current eastern limit.

1960s

During the 1960s the city was at the center of civil rights

Civil rights

issues, notably the location of a sanitation workers' strike in 1968. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

, who had come to the city in support of the striking workers, was assassinated

Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination

Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent American leader of the African-American civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39...

on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel, the day after giving his prophetic I've Been to the Mountaintop
I've Been to the Mountaintop
"I've Been to the Mountaintop" is the popular name of the last speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr.King spoke on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. The next day, King was assassinated....

speech at the Mason Temple

Mason Temple

Mason Temple, in Memphis, Tennessee, is the International Sanctuary and central headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, the largest African American Pentecostal group in the world....

. The assassin, James Earl Ray

James Earl Ray

James Earl Ray was an American criminal convicted of the assassination of civil rights and anti-war activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr....

, was a racist escaped convict who had no previous connection to the city.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children's catastrophic diseases. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee. It is a nonprofit medical corporation chartered as a 501 tax-exempt organization under IRS regulations.In...

opened in 1962, the result of tireless fundraising efforts by the entertainer Danny Thomas

Danny Thomas

Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...

. St. Jude's specializes in the study and treatment of catastrophic diseases affecting children, especially leukemia

Leukemia

Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

and other childhood cancers, AIDS, sickle cell disease, and inherited immune disorder

Immune disorder

An immune disorder is a dysfunction of the immune system. These disorders can be characterized in several different ways:* By the component of the immune system affected* By whether the immune system is overactive or underactive...

Recent History

FedEx Corporation (originally, Federal Express) was founded in Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

in 1971, but moved to Memphis in 1973 to take advantage of the more extensive airport facilities. Memphis became the major hub of operations for FedEx and as a result the Memphis International Airport

Memphis International Airport

Memphis International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located three miles south of the central business district of Memphis, a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States....

became the largest airfreight terminal in the world. In 1974 Harold Ford, Sr.

Harold Ford, Sr.

Harold Eugene Ford, Sr. was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives representing the Memphis, Tennessee area for ten terms—from 1975 until his retirement in 1997. He was the first African-American to represent Tennessee in the U.S...

was elected to the US Congress, becoming the first black elected national official from Tennessee. Memphis elected its first African American mayor, Dr. W.W. Herenton in 1994.

Cultural history

Memphis is well known for its cultural contributions to the identity of the American south

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

.

Col. Henry Van Pelt began publishing The Appeal newspaper, ancestor of today's Commercial Appeal in a wooden shack along the Wolf River in 1841. A pro-Confederacy newspaper, The Appeal moved frequently during the Civil War to avoid capture by Union forces. The Commercial Appeal was awarded a Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

in 1923 for its coverage of, and editorial opposition to, the activities of the Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

Riverboats

From the earliest days of the steamboat

Steamboat

A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...

, through the present day, Memphis has been a major center of river transportation. Passenger steamers linked Memphis with river ports up and down the Mississippi

Mississippi River

, Ohio

Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

and Missouri

Missouri River

The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

Rivers as late as the 1920s. Tom Lee Park

Tom Lee Park

Tom Lee Park is a city park located to the immediate west of downtown Memphis, Tennessee, overlooking the Mississippi River. Encompassing about 30 acres parallel to the Mississippi River for about one mile , it offers panoramic views of the Mississippi River and the shores of Arkansas on the...

on the Memphis riverfront is named for an African-American riverworker who became a civic hero. Tom Lee could not swim. Nevertheless, he single-handedly rescued thirty-two people from drowning when the steamer M.E. Norman
M.E. Norman
M.E. Norman was a -long sternwheel steamboat operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.On May 8, 1925, the M.E. Norman sank after an explosion. Tom Lee, an African-American riverworker, saved the lives of 32 passengers.-Sinking of the boat:...

sank in 1925. Today, Memphis Riverboats offers tourist excursions from the Memphis waterfront on paddlewheel steamers.

African-American music

Beginning in the early 20th century Memphis became famous for the innovative strains of African-American music, including gospel

Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

, blues, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, and Rhythm and Blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

genres, a tradition that continues to this day. Many notable blues musicians grew up in and around the Memphis and northern Mississippi, and performed there regularly. These included such musical greats as Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters

McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...

, Robert Johnson, B.B. King, and Howlin' Wolf

Howlin' Wolf

Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....

. Stax Records

Stax Records

Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...

, which opened in Memphis in 1957, produced almost exclusively African-American music. Stax was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and blues recordings. Stax recordings and artists included Rufus

Rufus Thomas

Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...

and Carla Thomas

Carla Thomas

Carla Thomas is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. She is the daughter of Rufus Thomas.-Childhood:...

, Sam and Dave, Otis Redding

Otis Redding

Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...

, William Bell

William Bell (singer)

William Bell is an American soul singer and songwriter, and one of the architects of the Stax-Volt sound. As a performer, he is probably best known for 1961's "You Don't Miss Your Water" ; 1968's "Private Number" ; and 1976's "Tryin' To Love Two", Bell's only US top 40 hit, which also hit #1 on the...

, The Bar-Kays and their house band, Booker T. & the MG's. Several Stax hits were written and produced by the team of Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes

& David Porter

David Porter (musician)

David Porter is an American soul musician. Porter is best known as the songwriting and production partner of Isaac Hayes at Stax Records during the 1960s...

Rock and Roll

In 1950, Sam Phillips

Sam Phillips

Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...

opened the "Memphis Recording Service" where he recorded for his Sun Records

Sun Records

Sun Records is a record label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, starting operations on March 27, 1952.Founded by Sam Phillips, Sun Records was known for giving notable musicians such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash...

label. B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf

Howlin' Wolf

Chester Arthur Burnett , known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....

, Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

, Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

, Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis's career faltered after he married his young cousin, and he afterwards made a career extension to country and western music. He is known by the nickname 'The...

, Carl Perkins

Carl Perkins

Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...

, and Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

were all recorded there in its early years. The young Elvis Presley frequently listened to gospel and soul music, and many of his early recordings were inspired or written by African-American composers and recording artists in the Mid-South

Memphis Metropolitan Area

The Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area, TN-MS-AR , more commonly known as The Mid-South, is the 41st largest among similarly designated areas in the United States. The metropolitan area covers eight counties in three states – Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas...

area.

Firsts in Radio

The first African American-formatted radio station, WDIA

WDIA

WDIA is an AM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee, in the United States of America. Its radio frequency is 1070 kHz. In 1962 it became the first U.S. radio station programmed by African-Americans, though its ownership was white.-History:...

, was founded in the city in 1947 by Bert Ferguson and John Pepper

John Pepper

John Pepper, also known as József Pogány, born József Schwartz was a Hungarian-Jewish Communist politician, active in the radical movements of both Hungary and the United States. He later served as a functionary in the Communist International in Moscow, before being cashiered in 1929...

, and included a young B. B. King as disc jockey. B. B. King's moniker was derived from his WDIA nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy", a reference to Memphis' Beale Street

Beale Street

Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are...

on which many nightclubs and blues venues were located. WHER, the first all-female station ("All-Girl Radio"), was founded in 1955 by the recording studio owner Sam Phillips

Sam Phillips

and Holiday Inn

Holiday Inn

founder Kemmons Wilson

Kemmons Wilson

Culinary history

In addition to a rich musical heritage, Memphis also boasts a long culinary legacy dominated by regional barbecue

Barbecue

Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...

. Memphis barbecue is rendered distinct by its sole usage of pork (as opposed to beef), focus on rib and shoulder cuts of meat, and multiple locally owned barbecue restaurants. Celebration of this local culinary tradition reaches its climax each year in May, when the Memphis in May

Memphis in May

Memphis in May is a month long festival held in Memphis, Tennessee. The festival itself is split into four main events: The Beale Street Music Festival, the kick-off event which showcases a mix of local and national music acts, International Week, a group of events dedicated to the country that is...

Festival holds its annual World-Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

Historically Significant Districts

Downtown Memphis is the oldest section of the city, built on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

. Downtown includes the old central business and government districts. Beale Street

Beale Street

, and the Lorraine Motel (now the National Civil Rights Museum

National Civil Rights Museum

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, is a privately owned complex of museums and historic buildings built around the former Lorraine Motel at 450 Mulberry Street, where Martin Luther King, Jr...

, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968) are located in the Downtown area.

The Pinch District or just The Pinch is an area of Uptown, Memphis

Uptown, Memphis

Uptown Memphis is a neighborhood located near downtown Memphis, Tennessee.St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Pinch District are located in the general vicinity.-19th century:...

that played an important role in local immigration patterns beginning in the early 19th century. Memphis' first business district, the Pinch encompassed all of Memphis north of Adams Street, from the River to Third Street. The name was originally a term of derision, referring to emaciated Irish immigrants who fled the Irish Potato Famine. Later, Italian, Russian, Greek and, especially, Jewish immigrants also called it home before migrating to more affluent sections of the city.

Victorian Village
Victorian Village, Memphis
The Victorian Village District is an area of Memphis, Tennessee.-Geography:The Victorian Village is located in the eastern quadrant of downtown Memphis.-History:...

is a series of grand Victorian-era mansions built just east of Downtown Memphis in what was then the outskirts of the city. Several of these homes have been opened to the public for tours.

Orange Mound was the first African-American neighborhood in the United States to be built by and for African-Americans. Orange Mound was developed on the grounds a former plantation beginning in the 1890s and provided affordable land and residences for the less affluent. The neighborhood provided a refuge for blacks moving to the city for the first time from the rural South. Orange Mound residents largely owned their own homes and enjoyed a strong sense of community and identity.

Midtown, Memphis
Midtown, Memphis
- Overview :Architecturally, Midtown Memphis, Tennessee is marked with residential vintage housing, specialty stores, and high-rise buildings, often all located on the same avenue...

, a very diverse area in the center of the city has buildings largely dating from the first half of the 20th Century. Midtown is Memphis' most ethnically and culturally diverse area. Many educational and cultural institutions are located in Midtown, including the University of Tennessee Health Science Center

University of Tennessee Health Science Center

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis includes the Colleges of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. Its pediatric residency program is affiliated with Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center and residents in pediatrics,...

, Rhodes College

Rhodes College

Rhodes College is a private, predominantly undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Originally founded by freemasons in 1848, Rhodes became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in 1855. Rhodes enrolls approximately 1,700 students pursuing bachelor's and master's...

, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art is an art museum in Memphis, Tennessee. The Brooks Museum, which was founded in 1916, is the oldest and largest art museum in the state of Tennessee. The museum is a privately funded nonprofit institution located in Overton Park in Midtown Memphis.The original...

, the Memphis Zoo

Memphis Zoo

The Memphis Zoo, located in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee, is home to more than 3,500 animals representing over 500 different species. Created in April 1906, the zoo has been a major tenant of Overton Park for more than 100 years. The land currently designated to the Memphis Zoo was defined by the...

, and the Memphis College of Art

Memphis College of Art

Memphis College of Art, known before 1985 as the Memphis Academy of Arts, is a small, private college of art and design located in Memphis, Tennessee's Overton Park adjacent to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. It offers Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts in Art Education...

. Evergreen Historic District
Evergreen, Memphis
-Geography:The most understood borders are Poplar Avenue to the south, McLean Boulevard to the east, North Parkway to the north, and Watkins Street to the west. Evergreen is located in the area of Memphis known as Midtown...

, one of Memphis' oldest residential districts is located in Midtown. Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...

wrote his first produced play, Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay! at the Midtown home of his grandparents in 1935. It was performed by an Midtown Memphis amateur theater group that year.

Education

The first Memphis schools were chartered in 1826, but until 1848 all Memphis schools were private. The first "free" public schools in opened in 1848, but at first nominally charged a $2 tuition. By 1852, there were 13 public schools supported by taxpayers. The first city school for black students opened in 1868, and for a century the city maintained separate school facilities for the two races. Memphis City Schools began desegregation in the late 1950s, but progress was slow until a court order in 1973 that required busing to fully integrate the schools. The 1973 busing order was unpopular with white families and within a short time many white families had enrolled their children in private schools.

The University of Tennessee College of Dentistry was founded in 1878 making it the oldest dental college in the South, and the third oldest public college of dentistry in the United States. The University of Tennessee College of Medicine

University of Tennessee College of Medicine

The University of Tennessee College of Medicine is one of six graduate schools of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in downtown Memphis...

in Memphis was created in 1911 through merger of five independent Tennessee medical schools following the influential Flexner Report

Flexner Report

The Flexner Report is a book-length study of medical education in the United States and Canada, written by the professional educator Abraham Flexner and published in 1910 under the aegis of the Carnegie Foundation...

.

The University of Memphis

University of Memphis

The University of Memphis is an American public research university located in the Normal Station neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee and is the flagship public research university of the Tennessee Board of Regents system....

first opened as the West Tennessee State Normal School in 1912. Rhodes College

Rhodes College

, then known as Southwestern at Memphis, moved to Memphis from Clarksville, Tennessee

Clarksville, Tennessee

Clarksville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Tennessee, United States, and the fifth largest city in the state. The population was 132,929 in 2010 United States Census...

in 1925. LeMoyne-Owen College

LeMoyne-Owen College

-External links:*...

a private, historically black, church-affiliated college traces its history to 1862 when the American Missionary Association

American Missionary Association

The American Missionary Association was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on September 3, 1846 in Albany, New York. The main purpose of this organization was to abolish slavery, to educate African Americans, to promote racial equality, and to promote Christian values...

(AMA) opened an elementary school for freedmen and escaped slaves.

Historical and genealogical resources

The Memphis and Shelby County Room in the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library provides facilities for researchers to view items from the library’s archives and its manuscript collections. These include historical records of people and families, maps, photographs, newspaper vertical files, books, city directories, and music and video recordings. These materials document the development of the community, government, economy, culture, and heritage of Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee. The Genealogy Collection includes microfilmed and indexed Memphis and Shelby County records. The Tennessee Genealogical Society maintains a Regional History and Genealogy Center Library in suburban Germantown, TN. The Shelby County Register of Deeds website has many important records available on-line, including real estate transactions, court cases and vital records.

External links

Bird's eye view of the city of Memphis, Tennessee, 1870. (Library of Congress)
Perspective map of the city of Memphis, Tenn., 1887. (Library of Congress)
Historical records from the Shelby County Register of Deeds.
Ask Vance, Memphis Magazine.
Big Empties: Memphis landmarks that have stood vacant for years, waiting for someone to bring them back to life., Memphis Flyer, December 1997.
History and Facts about Memphis & Shelby County, Memphis Public Library.
MemphisHistory.com
The Fransioli Hotel and Restaurant, 1883-1925.
Robert R. Church, Sr. one of America's most profound “rags to riches“ stories

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Early history

European explorers - 1500s/1600s

Foundation - 1819

Competing towns: Hopefield, AR and Randolph, TN

Civil War

Yellow fever epidemic - 1870s

Until the 1940s

World War II - 1950s

Geographical Expansion

1960s

Recent History

Cultural history

Riverboats

African-American music

Rock and Roll

Firsts in Radio

Culinary history

Historically Significant Districts

Education

Historical and genealogical resources

Further reading

External links