The Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange, Memphis, TN, Bezoekersgids & wat te doen in de buurt

The Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange is a museum on Union Avenue in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, set in the building where the city's cotton traders once did business. It tells the story of the crop that shaped Memphis, the Mississippi Delta and the people who worked its fields. It is a short walk from the Mississippi River and the Peabody Hotel.

The story behind it

Memphis grew up as a cotton town. Planters across the Delta sent their crop to the city, and brokers, buyers and merchants gathered along the streets near the river, an area still known as Cotton Row. The Memphis Cotton Exchange was founded in the 1870s so that these traders had one organised place to buy, sell and set prices.

Today the museum occupies the Exchange's old trading space and looks at the whole chain of the cotton economy, from the fields to the market floor. That includes the hard history of enslaved labour and sharecropping, which is part of why cotton matters to the story of Memphis and the American South.

What to look for

• The trading floor itself, where you can picture brokers gathering to watch the market and agree deals.
• The large board once used to track cotton prices, a reminder that fortunes here moved with daily numbers.
• The exhibits on the people behind the crop, including field workers and sharecroppers, who are as central to the story as the traders.
• The Union Avenue frontage and the streets around it, which still show the commercial architecture of old Cotton Row.

Tips for your visit

• Plan about an hour inside, longer if you like reading every panel. Check current opening hours and admission before you go.
• The museum is indoors, so it works well on a hot or wet Memphis day.
• It is close to the Peabody Hotel, the Main Street trolley line, Beale Street and the riverfront, so it fits easily into a day on foot downtown.
• Walk a few blocks toward the river afterwards to see where the cotton trade once connected with river traffic.

See it on a quest

The Cotton Museum is one of the places you pass on Murder Mystery: Death in the Shadows in Memphis, TN. You reach it on foot as one stop on a longer route through downtown, the app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle in the streets in front of you. It suits anyone who likes a mystery theme with their sightseeing. It is a paid quest, and one ticket covers the whole group.