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...
Prior to World War II, Enschede, the largest cotton manufacturing city in the Netherlands, and Memphis, the Mid-South’s cotton-exchange center, maintained firm business ties. Enschede, situated six miles from the German border, was completely...
art education; arts; clubs; historic preservation; museums; neighborhoods; public service; women;
Florence Makin McIntyre is remembered as the First Lady of Memphis Art. She was born in Memphis in 1878 and grew up in her family home, the Pillow-McIntyre House, at 707 Adams Avenue in the historic Victorian Village neighborhood. As a child she...
government; journalists; mayors; nuclear fuels; power plants; TVA; utilities; writers;
Paul Coppock joined the Commercial Appeal as a cub reporter in 1929, and during the thirties he reported on Memphis and Shelby County government. In the early 1940s he became city night editor, and it was during this time he began to write “The...
The Memphis Opera Theatre/Opera Memphis Programs Collection was donated to the Memphis and Shelby County Room by several individuals over many years. The programs were then gathered together to create this collection which consists of programs for...
The Selma S. Lewis Collection was given to the Memphis and Shelby County Room by her daughter, Jane Lewis Ross in April 2000. The collection, which includes a wide range of newspaper clippings, correspondence, photographs and publications,...
art education; arts; clubs; education; Free Art School; James Lee Memorial Academy of Arts; Memphis College of Art; neighborhoods; public service; residences; women;
The Memphis Art Association was organized in 1914 by Florence McIntyre, a local artist and supporter of art education in Memphis, and members of the Nineteenth Century Club, a local women’s club dedicated to community-wide philanthropic...
business; economy; Firestone Tire and Rubber Company; Firestone, Raymond C.; Frayser; industry; New Chicago; rubber;
Material in the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Collection provides important information on the company that at one time was the largest manufacturer in Memphis, employing thousands of individuals working in a facility that covered several...
business; economy; Firestone Tire and Rubber Company; Firestone, Raymond C.; Frayser; industry; New Chicago; rubber;
Material in the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Collection provides important information on the company that at one time was the largest manufacturer in Memphis, employing thousands of individuals working in a facility that covered several...
African Americans; airports; budget; commission government; Crump, E. H.; economy; education; floods; government; housing; law; mayors; New Deal; paving; politics; public service; race relations; roads; schools; streets; traffic; utilities;
Samuel Watkins Overton was born in Memphis in 1894 to a distinguished local family. He was the great-grandson of John Overton, a founder of Memphis, the grandson of Napoleon Hill, a wealthy businessman, and the son of S. Watkins Overton, who built...
Ethel Taylor Maxwell was born in Memphis in 1915 and enjoyed a long and prominent career as a musical singing star and later as a teacher of music. She credited her parents with encouraging her early interest in music and supporting her artistic...
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...
business; Chandler, Walter; Crump, E. H.; economy; education; government; hospitals; housing; law; legislature; machine politics; mayors; municipal government; politics; public safety; public service; race; transportation;
Walter Chandler, who served as Mayor of Memphis during World War II, and then again briefly in 1955, was born in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1887. He moved to Memphis as a teenager and attended public schools. After earning a law degree from the...
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...
African Americans; agriculture; clubs; cotton; dentists; entertainment; mayors; police; public service; race; recreation; social life; women;
Dr. Ransom Q. Venson was a native of Rapides Parish, Louisiana. In 1912 he graduated from Meharry Medical School in Nashville and then moved to Memphis to establish a dental practice in this city. In 1934, he married Ethyl B. Horton, a native...
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...
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...
Exterior Side One: "The Gateway to the South and West -- Memphis Tenn. -- Down in Dixie -- Industry -- Lumber -- Cotton -- Largest Hardwood Lumber Center and Cotton Warehouses in the World" -- Exterior Side Two: "River Front and...
civil engineering; drafting; drainage structures; engineering; expressways; floods; highways; land use; levees; mayors; public service; public works; railroads; rivers; sewage; streets; zoning;
Thomas E. Maxson was born in LaBette County, Kansas in 1901 and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M College in 1922 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. After receiving his degree, Maxson worked for a year...
Henry A. Montgomery was born in Fermanagh County, Ireland in 1829. At fifteen he began an apprenticeship with Thos. Karnahan & Sons, a timber, slate and iron dealership. He immigrated to Canada in the spring of 1848 and moved later that year...
