Delve into the history of cotton trading and its impact on both Memphis and the world during a visit to The Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange. This captivating museum tells how everything from art and music to science and technology were influenced by the people involved in the Mississippi Delta cotton industry. Find educational exhibits and original artifacts spread around the trading floor of the one-time Memphis Cotton Exchange building.
On the wall of the main exhibition room is the trading wall, on which cotton prices would change throughout the day and traders would use as a reference for purchases. See a timeline of the history of cotton from the earliest plants some 6.5 million years ago to the present day. Step inside phone booths and listen to firsthand accounts of the industry from cotton workers.
Find a B.B. King guitar and a Howlin’ Wolf concert poster, among many musical artifacts. They celebrate the cotton field workers’s influence on American popular culture and the birth of the blues music genre. In addition, they show the cultural differences between the industry’s black workers and white business tycoons. A display of manacles and chain locks show the hardships suffered by slaves.
The Educational Hall features exhibits that look into the changing world of cotton. Example themes are how cotton is produced and how the industry moved from manual labor to cotton pickers. Read about biotechnology and sustainability in agriculture.
The museum stands in the Cotton Row Historic District of Downtown Memphis. Travel here by trolley to the Union-Main stop. Beale Street is about a 5-minute walk to the south. Drivers can use the metered car par located adjacent to the building.
The Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange is open daily and there’s and admission fee. Last entrance is one hour prior to closing time. A self-guided audio tour of the Cotton Row Historic District is included with the entrance fee.
