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...
annexation; arts; city council; crime; development; economics; farm marketing; government; law enforcement; municipal government; painting; politics; public service; sanitation workers strike; social issues; tourism;
Robert B. James served on the Memphis City Council from 1968 to 1988. During his twenty years as councilman, he accumulated many documents related to council business, as well as material from other organizations and events with which he was...
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 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...
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...
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...
law; libraries; civil rights; desegregation; Turner, Jesse H.; Randolph, Wassell; Armour, Claude A.; City Commission;
Letter from President [Wassell Randolph] to City Commissioner Claude Armour: "Dear Commissioner Armour: You have read in the newspapers where Jesse H. Turner, Negro, has filed suit against Memphis Public Library in the United States District...
City Hospital; Kane, Elizabeth C.; medicine; women;
"50 YEARS AGO - April 15, 1903 - For the first time in history a woman physician is to be elected a member of the staff of the City Hospital, according to informed sources at the city hall. The woman physician is Dr. Elizabeth C. Kane, who...
annexation; Bartlett, Tennessee; busing; community centers; desegregation; education; government; historic preservation; hospitals; land use; neighborhoods; public service; parks; playgrounds; Raleigh; roads; schools; streets; traffic; zoning;
The Raleigh Community Council (RCC) was formed in 1971 under the leadership of Donald “Don” R. Anderson to unite community organizations and focus their activities to better serve the Raleigh area. The Raleigh chapters of the Jaycees and the...
correspondence; libraries; civil rights; desegregation; Wallis, C. Lamar; Loeb, Henry;
Letter from Library Director Lamar Wallis to Mayor Loeb and City Commissioners: "Gentlemen: At its regular meeting today the Memphis Public Library Board of Directors instructed me to ask the City Commission to meet with the Library Board on...
law; libraries; civil rights; desegregation; Wallis, C. Lamar; Gianotti, Frank;
A copy of a letter sent from Lamar Wallis to Frank Gianotti: "Dear Mr. Gianotti: -- As you requested by telephone today I have copied below the resolution of the Library Board concerning integration: -- At a special meeting of the Board of...
law; libraries; civil rights; desegregation; Cossitt Library; Cossitt, Frederick H.; Cossitt family; City Commission; Randolph, Wassell;
A letter from Board President Wassell Randolph to Mayor Edmund Orgill and City Commissioners Claude A. Armour, Stanley Dillard, John T. Dwyer and Henry Loeb. The letter outlines the history of the Memphis Public Library, stating that it is not a...
books; celebrations; disease; entertainment; epidemics; festivals; insurance; Mardi Gras; public service; recreation; social life; yellow fever;
A leading citizen of Memphis in the decades after the Civil War, Colton Greene is best remembered as the originator of the Memphis Mardi Gras. Little is known of Greene’s early life other than that he was born in South Carolina in 1832. Greene...
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...
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...
Letter from Library Director Lamar Wallis to Reverend Eugene Luening, president of the Memphis chapter of the Tennessee Council on Human Relations: "Dear Mr. Leuning: Thank you for your letter of December 14 concerning the desegregation of the...
Copy of a letter sent by Wassell Randolph to Commissioner Loeb: "Dear Commissioner Loeb: -- You have read in the newspapers where Jesse H. Turner, Negro, has filed suit against Memphis Public Library in the United States District Court here. ...
