The William Fowler collection was given to the Memphis and Shelby County Room by Fowler’s grandson, John W. Fowler, in 1985. William Bingham Fowler, born in 1886, served the city of Memphis as an engineer over a span of 69 years. During this...
discrimination; gender equality; National Organization for Women; nonprofit organizations; politics; women;
The National Organization for Women (NOW), a dedicated women's rights advocacy coalition, was founded in 1966, amid much controversy over the proposed direction of the women's rights movement. In its nascent stages, the national chapter of NOW...
One of the most colorful chapters in the history of American journalism began in the late 19th century. In New York, fierce battles for circulation raged between newspaper publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, who ran screaming...
Future Memphis, Inc., was founded and incorporated in February 1961, when a group of business leaders meeting over lunch decided that the city needed an organization to determine what efforts could be made in business, education, the arts, or in...
drama; entertainment; Memphis Little Theatre; military; public service; radio; television; theater; WMC;
Earl Moreland, a popular figure in Memphis radio and television, was born in Decatur County, Tennessee, and attended grammar school in Collierville, Tennessee. His family then moved to Memphis, where Moreland attended Snowden Junior High and...
Edward Hull Crump was born near Holly Springs, Mississippi, in 1874. He was raised by his mother, Mollie Nelms Crump, after his father, a cotton planter and former Confederate officer, died during the yellow fever epidemic of 1878. When he was 19...
Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, or Freedmen’s Bureau as it was commonly known, in March 1865 as the end of the Civil War drew near. An agency of the War Department, the Freedmen’s Bureau had two main...
agriculture; Bedford family; cotton; Duke family; education; family; finding aids; Germantown, Tennessee; immigration; Nashoba; newspapers; public service; Shelby County; slavery; social life;
The Britton Duke Papers are a chronicle of an early Germantown, Tennessee, family. The papers were donated to the Memphis and Shelby County Room by Louise Duke Bedford, great granddaughter of Britton Duke, and her nephew, Edward C. Duke. The...
Henry Loeb, III was born into a wealthy and prominent family in Memphis in 1920. After graduating from Brown University and serving as a Naval lieutenant World War II, he returned to civilian life in Memphis. As Secretary of Loeb’s...
activism; African Americans; authors; Beale Street; business; civil rights; desegregation; education; Elks; insurance; military; politics; post office; public service; public speaking; race; Republican Party; writers;
The George W. Lee Collection was given to the library by his daughter Gilda Lee Robinson in 1985. The large collection includes extensive and wide-ranging correspondence, copies of many of Lee’s speeches, hundreds of newspaper and magazine...
airplanes; B-17; military; war bonds; World War II;
In September 1942 a new B-17 Flying Fortress was delivered to Bangor, Maine, to a crew of ten men led by Captain Robert Morgan. The airplane was named the Memphis Belle in honor of Margaret Polk, Captain Morgan’s fiancée in Memphis. -- The...
agriculture; Bedford family; cotton; Duke family; education; family; Germantown, Tennessee; immigration; Nashoba; newspapers; public service; Shelby County; slavery; social life;
The Britton Duke Papers are a chronicle of an early Germantown, Tennessee, family. The papers were donated to the Memphis and Shelby County Room by Louise Duke Bedford, great granddaughter of Britton Duke, and her nephew, Edward C. Duke. The...
African Americans; annexation; censorship; city budget; civic clubs; consolidation; engineers; fire department; government; hospitals; housing; mayors; parades; police department; politics; power plants; public service; race; segregation; slums;...
Frank T. Tobey was born in 1890 in Memphis and attended the Memphis Military Institute, Christian Brothers College and Captain Collier’s School. He pursued studies in engineering at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, South Dakota State...
judges; law; poetry; prose; public service; recreation; writers;
Walter Malone served as Circuit Court Judge for the last twenty years of his life, but he was best known as an accomplished poet and writer. His personal papers were donated to the Memphis and Shelby County Room by his niece, Alba R. Malone. The...
activism; Burson, Josephine Wainman; Democratic Party; employment; family; government; Hadassah; Jews; labor; minorities; public relations; public service; social justice; social life; state government; volunteerism; women
Josephine Wainman Burson, community leader and social activist, was dedicated to significantly improving the quality of life for women, underserved individuals and minority populations. Her career focused on community service and political...
Maxine Atkins was born in 1929, the youngest of the three children of Joseph and Georgia Rounds Atkins. Maxine graduated from Booker T. Washington High School at age 15 in 1945. She went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in biology from Spelman...
libraries; civil rights; desegregation; African Americans; Haley, Mary T.;
A report submitted by Mary T. Haley on Sept. 29, 1958 about an incident that occurred a week earlier. -- Monday evening, Sept. 22, 1958 Time: approx. 7:30 P.M. -- 4 Negroes, 3 male, 1 female, high school or college age, came into the library at...
Basie, William "Count"; Brescia, Matty; jazz; music;
"Jazz pianist William 'Count' Basie enjoyed popularity in Memphis for more than three decades, but times have changed considerably for black entertainers since the musician played his first gig on Beale Street. -- Matty Brescia, a retired...
"New Pay Schedules Adopted at District Meeting - Mrs. Alice King of the Shelby County Health Department, was re-elected president of the Tennessee Nurses' Association, District No. 1, yesterday at the University Center. -- Salaries for nurses...
