Tennessee – Yesterday Today

Photos From Daisy Studio in Memphis, Tennessee From the Early 1940s

Memphis is a city along the Mississippi River in southwestern Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. It is Tennessee’s second-most populous city behind Nashville; fifth-most populous city in the Southeast, the nation’s 28th-largest; and the largest city proper of those situated along the Mississippi River. The city is the anchor of West Tennessee and the greaterContinue reading “Photos From Daisy Studio in Memphis, Tennessee From the Early 1940s”

Family of Nine Living in Field on U.S. Route 70 Near the Tennessee River During the Depression, 1936

A native of Boston, Carl Mydans (1907–2004) was born into a family of second-generation Russian immigrants. He studied journalism at Boston University, where he first learned how to take and develop photographs. After he graduated in 1930, he found work as a reporter for American Banker, but eventually bought a 35-millimeter Contax camera. The ContaxContinue reading “Family of Nine Living in Field on U.S. Route 70 Near the Tennessee River During the Depression, 1936”

Haunting Photographs That Captured the Horror of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Assassination

Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m. He was a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement and a NobelContinue reading “Haunting Photographs That Captured the Horror of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Assassination”

Manhattan Project: 20 Black and White Photos Document Everyday Life in the Secret City, Oak Ridge, in the 1940s

Starting in 1942, the U.S. government began quietly acquiring more than 60,000 acres in Eastern Tennessee for the Manhattan Project — the secret World War II program that developed the atomic bomb. The government needed land to build massive facilities to refine and develop nuclear materials for these new weapons, without attracting the attention ofContinue reading “Manhattan Project: 20 Black and White Photos Document Everyday Life in the Secret City, Oak Ridge, in the 1940s”