I am not a native Memphian. Unless your great-great-great grand daddy was born here one is not truly a native Memphian. It is fashionable among suburbanites to trash Memphis and I can't deny that Memphis isn't exactly a peace zone, I lived in the heart of the city for five years and enjoyed it. We resided in what passes for a "hip" neighborhood by local standards : not completely white. Ironically enough we moved out to a semi-rural area and the town we live closest to has a comparable crime rate minus the murders. Memphis has more to offer than just Elvis and Beale Street. Since I have already provided glimpses of the Memphis Zoo and the Memphis Botanic Gardens, I thought you might like to meet The Pink Palace.
Clarence Saunders founded a little something called Piggly Wiggly. In retrospect, his accomplishment might seem to be an unfortunately foreshadow the agri/corp food quality counter revolution that has homogenized tastes and eliminated small farms but at the time his concept was unique.
What is now the Pink Palace was conceived as his "dream home" a rather grandiose vision that was to have included a number of rich guy amenities that one just could not survive without: multiple bedrooms, and facilities to indulge hobbies. Before it was complete he went bankrupt, the dream home was never finished and it was donated to the city of Memphis. After additional investment, the Pink Palace was opened as a museum in 1930. A good deal of the collection especially the eclectic stuff was donated by Memphians. They were generally wealthy types who went off on grand adventures across the world and collected the sort of oddball things that are expensive and unique. As a result the museum has a particular Memphis flavor built into the exhibits.
Here is an outside shot of the Pink Palace....
Glimpsing the product selection was fun. It was also disturbing, many popular products managed to cheerfully invoke racist images to grab attention, proving that even then consumers liked to have a level of comfort and identification with the goods they bought.
This is a replica of what the first Piggly Wiggly looked like..
In those days, nice girls liked snuff, according to this poster ad. Alas, folks were also very concerned about
regularity.
I am sure that if I had aliments, this lovely mixture with 20% alcohol purchased from my local pharmacy, would have eased my soul. I thought is was the Sarsaparilla people wanted until I got a good look.
One of the most popular exhibits, especially for the kids is this gentleman.
Yup, a shrunken head. The blurb on the display indicated it had been donated by locals out of a collection and my question is where did they keep him? Did they used him to frighten their children into submission. Was he company in the kitchen or a casual conversation piece in the parlor?
This Fresco was completed after the Pink Palace became a museum. It was funded through the Works Progress Administration and painted by Burton Callicott who had a long and fruitful career as a teacher and artist in Memphis. Yeah, those New Deal ideas sure undermined the drive and will of people to make something of themselves.
I was keen on these spooky, intimidating masks from Mexico. Do you think if I put one on it would imbue me with enough magic power to convince our leaders to put impeachment back on the table?
The "in crowd" wore these masks during the the Cotton Carnival. Fancy costumes were essential for the King and Queen. There were actually two parallel celebrations for the white and black population. Black Memphians attended the Cotton Makers Jubilee. Just like Memphis itself this event took quite some time to integrate and more accurate reflect the city.
I got most of my information not linked from the handy dandy guide that I purchased. There is also a great interactive music room where you can dance on a piano, and try to imitate a beat on drums. Those kids just wouldn't let me near the cool toys. I skipped by the natural history part since I would rather see the live buffaloes at Shelby farms than the stuffed ones.
Thanks for having a look and if you visit Memphis check out a local museum like this one. I might even take you out for beer and barbecue.