C is for Cotton

Sharing another letter in the Memphis alphabet series I've been working on here and there. 

C is for cotton.

"C is for Cotton" 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 watercolor on paper by Holly B. Johnson ©2013

I know what some of you may be thinking. 

There ain't no cotton growing in the city streets of Memphis. 

True. 

BUT, Memphis is a big dog in the cotton market. 

Back in the day, everybody and their mama brought their cotton to Memphis to sell.  I've noticed the Cotton Museum at the Cotton Exchange building downtown a hundred times, but really I know this only because I read through an exhibit at the Pink Palace Museum a year or so ago. 

Basically, back in the early 1900's the farmers needed to sell their cotton to someone who needed massive quantities of it, like an owner of a textile plant.  These big wigs would obviously rather come to one central location, than travel from farm to farm.  Memphis was perfect because of it's location on the river.  Buyers could easily load their newly purchased cotton onto steamboats and move it quickly to where it needed to go. 

So everybody came to Memphis to buy and sell cotton, the Memphis Cotton Exchange was born, and for a really long time, Memphis was the center of the worldwide cotton trade.  Cotton was King.  The cotton market brought people from all walks of life to Memphis.  And money.  Cha-ching!  And truly it played a big role in making Memphis the city it is today. 

Memphis is still home of one of the world's largest cotton markets.  Obviously no one's bringing wagon loads of cotton here anymore.  They do all that stuff on computers now, so maybe it's sort of out of sight, out of mind.    

But still, I've made my case...

C is for cotton.