HISTORIC PHOTOS OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE captures the remarkable journey of this city and her people with still photography from the finest archives of city, state and private collecions. From the Civil War through Reconstruction, the rise of industry, World Wars and into the modern era, Memphis has remained a city of change and innovation. With hundreds of archival photos reproduced in stunning duotone on heavy art paper, this book is the perfect addition to any historican's collection.

An invaluable pictorial overview of African American vitality in a southern metropolis

Memphis has been an important city for African Americans in the South since the Civil War. They migrated from within Tennessee and from surrounding states to the urban crossroads in large numbers after emancipation, seeking freedom from the oppressive race relations of the rural South. Images of America: African Americans in Memphis chronicles this regional experience from the 19th century to the 1950s. Historic black Memphians were railroad men, bricklayers, chauffeurs, dressmakers, headwaiters, and beauticians, as well as businessmen, teachers, principals, barbers, preachers, musicians, nurses, doctors, Republican leaders, and Pullman car porters. During the Jim Crow era, they established social, political, economic, and educational institutions that sustained their communities in one of the most rigidly segregated cities in America. The dynamic growth and change of the post-World War II South set the stage for a new, authentic, black urban culture defined by Memphis gospel, blues, and rhythm and blues music; black radio; black newspapers; and religious pageants.

HISTORIC PHOTOS OF MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE captures the remarkable journey of this city and her people with still photography from the finest archives of city, state and private collecions. From the Civil War through Reconstruction, the rise of industry, World Wars and into the modern era, Memphis has remained a city of change and innovation. With hundreds of archival photos reproduced in stunning duotone on heavy art paper, this book is the perfect addition to any historican's collection.

The music that has been produced in Memphis over the past 100 years is as unique and diverse as the city itself. Growing out of the Mississippi Delta, the Memphis blues have been transported worldwide by such ambassadors as B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf. Rock's first baby steps were taken at the tiny Sun Studio by a group of artists who have inspired generations of musicians to follow in their beat. Soul music found its groove at Stax with a homegrown sound that exploded onto the American music scene. Music producers, including Sam Phillips, Willie Mitchell, Chips Moman, and Jim Stewart, found in Memphis a sound as distinctive as their individual personalities. Each one inspired, motivated, and encouraged their artists and, in doing so, produced a volume of work that has become the sound track of their generation.

Gordon's critically acclaimed and richly entertaining exploration of the birthplace of rock and roll is peopled with Delta bluesmen, manic deejays, matinee cowboys and Elvis.

Race, Representation & Photography in 19th-Century Memphis: from Slavery to Jim Crow presents a rich interpretation of African American visual culture. Using Victorian era photographs, engravings, and pictorial illustrations from local and national archives, this unique study examines intersections of race and image within the context of early African American communities. It emphasizes black agency, looking at how African Americans in Memphis manipulated the power of photography in the creation of free identities. Blacks are at the center of a study that brings to light how wide-ranging practices of photography were linked to racialized experiences in the American south following the Civil War. Jenkins' book connects the social history of photography with the fields of visual culture, art history, southern studies, gender, and critical race studies.

Older areas of Memphis are peppered with retro neon signs, murals with business names and logos, and other architectural remnants of the city's past. . . . Each chapter features a painting of an iconic sign by Rebecca Phillips, as well as historical images and additional current-day photographs by Jeremy Greene. The history of the sign and they places they represent are told through personal stories. Featured signs include the Universal Life Insurance Company sign on M.L.K. Jr. Avenue, the old Chicago Pizza Factory sign that was replaced with Chiwawa's "Midtown Is Memphis" sign, the sputnik sign at Joe's Wines and Liquors, the Drink-n-Drag sign on Club Spectrum, and the Skateland roller skate. -- Memphis Flyer.

Far more than blues and barbecue, Memphis culture has evolved one day at a time. Author G. Wayne Dowdy pins an exact date to a host of important, quirky and forgotten events in the history of Tennessee's largest city--an entertaining footnote for each day of the year. Earth, Wind and Fire founder Maurice White entered the world in a Memphis hospital on December 19, 1941. On January 15, 1877, a severe thunderstorm mysteriously left the city covered in snakes. On December 31, 1902, a resident was murdered on Main Street after taunting a Native American named Creeping Bear. A day or a month at a time, enjoy a year of entertaining River City blasts from the past.

Born as a planned community that was partly owned by Andrew Jackson, Memphis grew on a steady diet of cotton. The second largest cotton supplier in the world, Memphis’s location on the fourth bluff of the Chickasaw River kept it free from flooding and helped the city develop its lucrative trade.Using archive pictures from the 1870s though to the 1960s paired with the equivalent view today, Memphis Then and Now charts the history of the city and the profound effect of the music business; from W. C. Handy and Beale Street, to Stax Records, Sun Records and the home of the King, Graceland. It also includes the railroad station from which Casey Jones departed on his final, fatal run in 1900.Includes: Memphis Levee, Cossitt Library, US Post Office, Beale Street, Handy Park, Warner Theatre, Columbian Mutual, Orpheum Theatre, Hebe Fountain, Union Avenue, Magevney House, Handwerker Gingerbread Playhouse, Shelby County Courthouse, St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Memphis Cotton Exchange, First National Bank, Illinois Central Station, City Hall, Masonic Temple, Peabody Hotel and the Tennessee Brewing Company.