The Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange — Attraction in Memphis

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...

Was my wife's and mine 2nd anniversary... The year of cotton. We went to a paper museum for our 1st, and then made this our destination for our 2nd anniversary as it was the closest cotton museum we could find :)

We got the Groupon deal which made it worth it. Like others have mentioned, really only need a couple hours for the visit. If we paid full price I would feel that it would be over priced. We did enjoy it and learned a lot of new information. Of course there was a lot of information with music and its impact, but sometimes wish it would of been more information related to cotton. Also started to watch some of the audio/video pieces but wish they were shorter clips. The information was great but not going to sit and listen to all of the clips in their entirety.

In the end would still recommend it, learned a lot of new information, at least for us. Nice layout, and enjoyed the introduction video. But did find that information was repeated from the video and across some of the different plaques. At least worth stopping and visiting once as long as you are able to...

The Cotton Museum is on the floor of the refurbished Memphis Cotton Exchange. The museum does an excellent educational job, using several strategically located multi-media tools, with places to sit for a bit, to describe the role cotton played in the world, as well as in the States, and particularly in the South and Memphis. You will learn how King Cotton shaped the economy, as well as the cultural identity of the area, especially its profound influence on music—including the birth of the blues—in Memphis. This museum was simply a little gem. It is also good for children as they will learn about the cotton plant, the effect of boll weevils, and they can even card some cotton for a real live experience. The gift shop gives plenty to explore and take away…a...