The Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange

Very educational, great place to learn about TTennessee's history
4 7 years ago (05-05-2018)

Worthy visit, really ties cotton into the scheme of things in the South and brings blues music background to light explaining well how it ties into the cotton trade
5 8 years ago (28-12-2017)

Great museum and great guy at front desk!
5 7 years ago (17-05-2018)

We spent a week in Memphis, and this was by far the worst attraction we visited. There is "nothing" to the museum, for which the tour is terribly overpriced @ $10. There are only 2 small rooms. The first initially looks appealing with a mannequin up on a ladder, posting cotton future prices in a "back in the day" setting. However, that is IT. The video which starts the presentation is uninformative and annoying as it is visually very difficult to look at, being simply pictures of pictures, which change rapidly. All it tells is that the Cotton Exchange was a clandestine group of wealthy old men, who made and lost fortunes speculating on the price of cotton, in a setting which was akin to a private social club, (i.e. simply an elite socially acceptable form of "gambling"). However, what is totally missing is any explanation of how cotton gets from the farmer to the users of the cotton (e.g. apparel manufacturers). How and where, and for what price did the farmer sell his cotton? You won't have any more of a clue about that after watching the video, and walking the two rooms, than before you came in. Furthermore some of the displays, already small, are simply musical items which are irrelevant, and pale in comparison to the many excellent Memphis museums dedicated exclusively to the history of blues and rock & roll music. Yes, there is a part of the tour which involves walking around downtown to several other locations, but that is not what you want, or envision, as part of a museum tour when you enter. Visiting this museum was a complete "bust". I will say that the people were "nice", but their museum needs to completely redesigned. As is, it is terribly inadequate, uninformative, and not worth the price of the tour.
1 8 years ago (25-06-2017)

2hrs well spent.
4 7 years ago (17-04-2018)