Memphis
Memphis names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Memphis mem'fis, a city of Tennessee
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
mem'fis, a city of Tennessee. It is the county seat of Shelby County. It is situated on a commanding bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, sixty feet above high water . It is the head of what may be called deep-water navigation. The last bridge across the Mississippi as one goes down the stream crosses the river here. It is of steel cantalever construction. It cost $3,000,000, and was opened in 1892. The city is well built, and is a manufacturing center of importance. It lies about two-fifths of the way from St. Louis to New Orleans . It is the metropolis of Tennessee, and is the fifth city in importance on the banks of the Mississippi. Memphis is one of the great cotton markets of the world. Such articles as are wanted in an agricultural section of the Union are manufactured here. Memphis is the largest market for hardwood lumber in the Union. A large amount of artificial ice is shipped to surrounding points. The French built a fort here in 1698. The first American settlers occupied the site in 1819. The city has had a steady growth checked only by the Civil War. It appears to be the most northerly point reached by yellow fever epidemics. In 1900 the population was 102,320. Nearly half were of negro descent. The population is increasing rapidly. In 1909 it was 125,000. During the Civil War a battle between the gunboats of the opposing forces took place at Memphis. The city was occupied by Union troops July 6, 1862. The Gayoso House was used as a hospital. See Tennessee
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and county-seat of Shelby co., Tenn.; on the Mississippi river and many important railroads. It contains a custom house, cotton exchange, merchants' exchange, the Cossitt Public Library, University School, Christian Brothers' College, the Memphis Hospital Medical College, St. Mary's School, Memphis Institute, Leath High School, Higbee School, the Le Moyne School, and the Hannibal Medical College. There are electric street railroads, gas and electric lights, waterworks, a steel railroad bridge across the Mississippi, built at a cost of $3,000,000, and opened in 1892, several ferries, National, State, and savings banks, and many daily, weekly, and other periodicals. The city is one of the largest trade centers for cotton in the United States. The total value of the receipts of cotton in 1919 was $77,509,347, and the value of the export of cotton and cotton-seed products was $42,000,000. It has also large manufacturing interests, including cotton-seed oil, flour, grist, and planing mills, foundries and machine shops, carriage and wagon works, brick and tile plants, tobacco factories, etc. The assessed value of real estate in 1919 was $96,921,590, of personal property $13,195,297. The tax rate was $17.50 per $1,000. The cost of maintaining the government was $4,211,617. There were 22,- 261 pupils in the public schools, and the penditures for education were $738,- 960. In 1862 a naval battle was fought here, resulting in victory for the Union vessels, and the city was occupied by the National authorities till the close of the war. Pop. (1910) 131,105; (1920) 162,- 351.
Memphis a celebrated city of Egypt
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a celebrated city of Egypt, on the W. bank of the Nile, 10 miles S. of the modern city of Cairo. Herodotus ascribes the foundation of this place, the Moph of the Old Testament, to Menes, first king of Egypt; the dates have been assigned from 3892 B. C. to 2100 B. C. Memphis was taken by the Persians under Cambyses 525 B. c., when many of its temples and palaces were destroyed. Alexander III. (the Great), who wintered here 332 b. c., did it much injury by founding Alexandria. Memphis, made capital 272 B. c., was taken by Antiochus Epiphanes 171 B. c., and was visited and restored by Septimius Severus, in 202. In the 7th century it passed under the dominion of the Arabs, and gradually fell into decay, Cairo being built from its ruins. The Arabian traveler, Abd-allatif, visited it in the 12th century. The ruins were discovered and excavated by Mariette, between 1850 and 1854. The position of Memphis was such as to command the whole inland trade of Egypt, ascending or descending the Nile; it was the chief seat of learning and religion in Egypt. It ceased to be the metropolis of Egypt on the foundation of Alexandria, 332 B. c. It soon after fell into such obscurity and decay, that, till lately, even its site was disputed.
Memphis an ancient city of Egypt
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an ancient city of Egypt. It was near the apex of the Nile delta, two miles south of Cairo. It rivaled Thebes in wealth and magnificence. After the fall of that city it became the capital of Egypt. It had a position of commanding commercial importance, being readily accessible from both the Mediterranean and the upper Nile. Extensive canals added to its commercial facilities. At present the site is occupied by squalid villages or strewn with blocks of granite half buried in sand. The remains are sufficient to show, however, quite independent of the accounts of the ancient geographers, that Memphis was a city of magnificent palaces and temples. There are colossal statues, variously described as from forty-five to seventy-five feet in height. One of the most striking features of the ancient city must have been an immense cemetery, known as the necropolis. In the center of the cemetery rose the pyramids of Memphis, in which the remains of kings were buried. The official nilometer of the ancients, a pillar on which the rising and falling waters of the Nile were recorded, stood in the river here. See Pyramids; Nile ; Cairo
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's called Memphis "the metropolis of Tennessee" with 125,000 people in 1909, and Collier's counted 162,351 in 1920; the city now holds roughly 620,000, but it lost the state's top rank to Nashville in the mid-2010s. The cotton receipts and hardwood lumber that defined its trade have been eclipsed by the FedEx superhub opened at Memphis International Airport in 1973, which made it one of the busiest cargo airports on earth, while Sun Records, Stax and Beale Street gave the city a musical fame no 1921 entry could anticipate. Its darkest modern landmark is the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on 4 April 1968 and which now houses the National Civil Rights Museum; the yellow fever that Aiton's noted reaching its northern limit here has not returned since the mosquito vector was proven in 1900. The Egyptian Memphis, whose site Collier's said was "till lately" disputed, was inscribed with its Saqqara necropolis as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, and Menes is now dated to about 3100 B.C. rather than the 3892 B.C. the old entry allowed.
Written for this edition, 2026.