Overton Park in Memphis, Tennessee, is a gem in the midst of a sprawling Southern city. In 1900, as Memphis emerged from bankruptcy and yellow fever epidemics, the Progressive movement encouraged Memphians to rely on the government for a better quality of life. The Memphis Park Commission, chartered that year, purchased 342 acres of land at the eastern edge of the city. Landowner Overton Lea of Nashville earned $110,000 from the sale. George Kessler was hired to build Overton Park, and the intervening years saw such amenities as the city's first zoo, the Brooks Museum of Art, the Overton Park Shell (the site of Elvis Presley's first public performance), Memphis College of Art, war memorials, and hiking trails through the world's only old-growth forest in an urban setting.

Overton Park (TN) (Images of America)

Arts & Photography

William Bearden

Photography & Video

Arcadia Publishing

In the barbeque joints and plate lunch cafes off Memphis's Front Street, one is easily reminded of the days when cotton was king, of a society of characters and cads; the big time and the small time; the rich and the richer; the hangers-on, anointed, powerful, and busted. Cotton created empires in agriculture, transportation, banking, and warehousing. It also shackled the dreams and lives of those born into slavery and sharecropping. Although many of the day-to-day dealings have moved to manicured office parks and high-rise buildings, cotton's influence still remains at the core of the Southern economy and Southern society. Cotton propelled technological advances that have changed the face and soul of the South. It was the wellspring that gave birth to modern music. Cotton triggered the migrations of millions of blacks and poor whites, shaping the culture of Northern cities. Its allure has called out to writers, artists, and photographers from around the world, attracted by the tragedy, irony, and power of cotton's story. In this book of vivid images and intriguing text, Memphis historian and author William Bearden presents the captivating history of cotton's profound influence on American society.

Cotton: From Southern Fields to the Memphis Market (TN) (Images of America)

The blues was born in the Mississippi Delta, and since that fateful night in 1903 when W. C. Handy heard the mournful sound of a pocketknife sliding over the strings of an acoustic guitar and the plaintive song of a long-forgotten musician in the hot night of Tutwiler, Mississippi, the blues has been on a journey around the world. From the cotton fields and juke joints of the Delta, up Highway 61 to Memphis's Beale Street, St. Louis, the Southside of Chicago, England, and points beyond, the blues is America's unique form of music. Blues is incisive in its honesty, elemental in its rhythm, and powerful in its almost visceral sensation. Nearly every style of popular music has its roots in the blues. Muddy Waters said it best: "The blues had a baby, and they called it rock and roll." Memphis has become the heart of the blues world, with a re-born Beale Street acting as its spiritual center. People come from the world over to experience its beat, savor its emotion, and feel its power. In the end . . . "it ain't nothin' but the blues."

Memphis Blues: Birthplace Of A Music Tradition (TN) (Images of America)

Music

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by William Bearden. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by William Bearden

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by William Bearden. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Overton Park (TN) (Images of America)

Cotton: From Southern Fields to the Memphis Market (TN) (Images of America)

Memphis Blues: Birthplace Of A Music Tradition (TN) (Images of America)