Memphis is where it is because of the bluff — the only high ground on the lower Mississippi, above a river that decided everything else about the place, from the cotton trade to the music that came out of it. These guides explain what each institution holds, what a building was put up for, and how the neighbourhoods differ — the things that stay true between visits. We write from published, checkable sources and we have not been to these places ourselves; where something is singled out as notable, we say who says so.