1892 Perron map MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, #113 |
Nice map titled Memphis, from wood engraving with fine detail and clear impression. Overall size approx. 17 x 16.5 cm, image size approx. 10 x 8 cm. From: Les Etats Unis, volume no. 16 of La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes, 19 volumes (1875-94), great work of Elisee Reclus. Cartographer is Charles Perron.
Memphis
city, seat (1819) of Shelby county, extreme southwestern
Tennessee, U.S. It lies on the Chickasaw bluffs above the Mississippi River
where the borders of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee meet. Memphis is
Tennessee's most populous city and is at the centre of the state's second
largest metropolitan area. Aside from West Memphis, Arkansas, Memphis's main
suburbs include Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland, and
Millington in Tennessee and Horn Lake, Olive Branch, and Southaven in
Mississippi. Area 295 square miles (764 square km). Pop. (2000) city, 690,743;
Memphis MSA, 1,205,204; (2010) city 646,889; Memphis MSA 1,316,100.
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto visited the area in 1541. French (1739) and
Spanish (1795) forts briefly existed on the site, and in 1797 the United States
built Fort Adams there. Memphis was founded in 1819 on land previously inhabited
by Chickasaw Indians. Andrew Jackson, later U.S. president, was one of its
founders. Memphis was named for the ancient Egyptian city (meaning “Place of
Good Abode”).
Memphis grew rapidly with the expansion of cotton growing in the South and
because of its transportation facilities by railroad and river. It was
incorporated in 1826. A Confederate military centre early in the American Civil
War, it was captured by a Union gunboat force on June 6, 1862, and remained
occupied until the end of the war. One of the country's worst race riots took
place there in May 1866.
Memphis subsequently became a centre of trade for the South's cotton. In the
1870s yellow fever devastated the city, killing more than 5,000 residents. The
city went bankrupt, declined in population, and in 1879 surrendered its charter.
Drastic sanitary reforms, continued cotton trading, and the growth of a market
in hardwood contributed to its economic recovery, and a new city charter was
granted in 1893. Economic development was accelerated after World War II. During
the 1960s the civil rights movement greatly affected the city. On April 4, 1968,
civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., visiting the city in support of a
sanitation workers' strike, was killed on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel by a
sniper's bullet. The motel became the National Civil Rights Museum in 1991;
exhibits trace the history of the civil rights struggle, and King's room is
preserved.
Memphis's central location has helped make it one of the largest distribution
centres in the United States. Its international airport is the world's busiest
cargo airport, and the city is among the nation's largest inland river ports.
Extensive rail and highway facilities and the headquarters of major freight
corporations contribute to the importance of the industry. Memphis is a major
world cotton market and a world leader in hardwood trading and processing and
soybean processing. The city serves an agricultural area noted for livestock,
cotton, soybeans, corn (maize), feed grains, and forest products and has
agricultural research and food processing industries. It is an important
wholesale centre. Manufactures include electronics, medical products and
equipment, and paper products. Services (including health care, banking and
finance, government, and education), tourism and convention business, and
high-technology industries also contribute to the economy. Educational
institutions in Memphis include Rhodes College (1848; Presbyterian),
LeMoyne-Owen College (1871), Christian Brothers University (1871; Roman
Catholic), University of Memphis (1912), Southwest Tennessee Community College
(established in 2000 by the merger of the State Technical Institute at Memphis
and Shelby State Community College), Memphis College of Art (1936), and the
health science centre of the University of Tennessee.
Memphis is one of the birthplaces of blues music and is associated particularly
with composer W.C. Handy, who immortalized the city's Beale Street in one of his
songs. Handy's home is preserved as a museum, and modern Beale Street is a
popular entertainment district with nightclubs, restaurants, shops, live music,
and other attractions. A blues festival is held annually in August, and other
events throughout the year celebrate the city's musical heritage. Memphis is
also known as the birthplace of rock and roll. Elvis Presley was one of many
musicians who launched careers from Memphis's Sun Studio. After Presley's death
in 1977, his city mansion and burial site, Graceland, became a shrine (opened to
the public for tours in 1982).
Memphis has a symphony orchestra, ballet troupe, and opera company, as well as
several theatre organizations. The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art (1916) is the
state's oldest; the Memphis Pink Palace Museum includes a planetarium and
cultural and historical exhibits. Historic sites include the Hunt-Phelan Home
(1828) and the Burkle Estate/Slavehaven (1849), a station on the Underground
Railroad. The Center for Southern Folklore is devoted to the people and culture
of the South. Sun Studio offers tours, and the Stax Museum of American Soul
Music (opened 2003) is located on the site of the Stax recording studio and
operates an adjacent music school. A park on Mud Island, in the Mississippi,
includes a five-block-long scale model of the river. The 32-story
stainless-steel Pyramid Arena hosts sports events, concerts, and shows.
FedExForum (opened 2004) houses the Grizzlies, the city's professional
basketball team. The Memphis in May International Festival is an annual
month-long event devoted to a different country each year. Africa in April is an
annual festival celebrating African American culture.
A U.S. Navy facility is located in Millington to the north. Chucalissa, a
prehistoric Native American village and archaeological museum, is in T.O. Fuller
State Park in southwestern Memphis, and Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park is north
of the city.