Historic Photos of Memphis [Hardcover]

Gina Cordell (Author), Patrick O'Daniel (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 198 pages
• Publisher: Turner; 1 edition (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596522615
• ISBN-13: 978-1596522619
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #595,563 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant Surprise, September 29, 2006

By 

G. Wayne Dowdy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Historic Photos of Memphis (Hardcover)

Often when I purchase a volume of photographs I feel that I have wasted my money on a book that took me all of two minutes to 'read.' Mind you I like looking at photographs, particularly historic ones, but most photographic books leave me a bit dissatisfied.

Not so this book. It is not an exaggeration to say that "Historic Photos of Memphis" is so much more than a conventional book of old photographs. Cordell and O'Daniel have done a excellent job of choosing images that illustrate the growth and development of Memphis,Tennessee.

Equally significant are the chapter introductions and detailed captions which provide a wealth of information on the history of the Bluff City.

Taken together, the photos and text included in "Historic Photos of Memphis" are a major contribution to our understanding of urban history in the American South.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Step Back in Time, August 31, 2006

By 

G. Newby "Alphonso Kelley" (Memphis, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Historic Photos of Memphis (Hardcover)

You'd think it would be easy to put together a book of historic photographs, especially since you don't even have to take the pictures. I mean, don't you just grab up some old snapshots and slap them together into a book? Well, not quite. Actually, there's a lot more that goes into it, as this well-thought volume of historic images aptly demonstrates.

The best photography books tell a story, the way this one does. The pictures run together thematically, and there's a logical progression to the way the book is laid out. The process is anything but willy-nilly, as I learned while watching Gina and Patrick comb through the Memphis Room's 16,000-odd historical images. It was intimidating to watch, to say the least. The two of them ran back and forth with bundles and bundles of photographs, selecting this one, rejecting that one, changing their minds and then changing them back again. Everytime I walked through the processing room the two of them would be huddled over some photograph or other, giving it the once-over and deciding its fate.

Once they had their photographs in order, then they had to go back and write captions for them, as well as introductions to the various sections. That was yet another Herculean task. Gina and Patrick had definite things they wanted to say about the pictures, and the stories that they tell, but they also had to research each image in order to get their facts straight. A snapshot for the Business Men's Club, for instance, tells us that "the organization was founded in 1900 and moved to 81 Monroe in 1907. Beginning in 1913, the building (they had occupied became) the headquarters for the Memphis Chamber of Commerce." It takes a lot of work to find all of that out. A lot of digging and poking through dusty old books and half-readable microfilm reels. Now imagine doing that 198 times. Sounds daunting, huh? I can tell you from the looks I sometimes saw on their faces that it definitely was.

But about the book itself. There have been numerous Memphis photograph books, but this is easily the best. Not only does it have a pleasing size and shape, but the paper and the ink settings are of very high quality. In short, it's a coffee-table book that you can hold in your hands. But the thing that really makes this book special is the thoughtful photograph selection and sequencing that lies behind it. Naturally the book follows a historical progression, but there are thematic ones as well. The opposing images on pages 32 and 33, for instance, both show us the uglier side of industrialization in 19th-century America. Other photographs stress the beauty of the landscape, the majesty of the river, and the ebb and flow of social change. Sometimes the images capture the hustle and bustle of everyday life in a growing city, and sometimes they catch a private moment that would otherwise be lost forever. In my personal favorite, a scene from Court Square in 1932, an off-duty railcar conductor feeds the pigeons that alight at his feet. Some of the birds are captured in mid-air, their wings a flapping blur of motion.

The photographs also give us a chance to learn things we never knew. I was shocked, for instance, to learn that a lonely country road, passing through a grove of trees, was actually Union Avenue. I was also taken aback by the enormity of the trees that lumbermen felled in days gone by. Who knew that such tall giants once stood watch over Memphis? And all that flooding? I never dreamed that water could rise so high. Thank God for levees, I say.

But the very best thing about this book is that it includes everyone. The Memphis that emerges from these pages is a melting-pot in its brewing stage. Sure, there's an elite upper-crust, but there's also a throng of working class people, male and female, black and white. we see them in crowds, but we also get glimpses of their individual faces. They stare boldly from the pages, asserting their rightful place in our collective memory. There are snapshots of mule drivers, cotton loaders, beauty queens, gamblers, motorcyclists, gossiping women, policemen with tommy guns, schoolchildren, and even a rare shot of a jug band. The list goes on, but why should I spoil it? This is an everyman's Memphis, as the book makes plainly clear. As such, its a tribute not only to what Memphis once was, but what it is today and what it someday might become.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Historic Photos of Memphis, August 1, 2007

By 

Michael Morgan (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Historic Photos of Memphis (Hardcover)

Absolutely a spectacular book for those interested in a piece of history. I don't even live in Memphis and enjoyed seeing the photo's and comments. Some photo's are of then and now, very sad to see great structures destroyed and pathetic ones put in there place, someone should have been held accountable for this poor judgement, even as it goes on now!