Don Newman
Half a century ago, Don Newman captured the streaks of automobile headlights on Beale Street. Explore the "Newman to Now" project online.
In case you haven’t heard, Memphis turned 200 this year. As with any milestone, the Bluff City’s bicentennial has been cause for both celebration and contemplation. How has Memphis changed? How has it stayed the same? Perhaps most importantly, what do we want our future to look like?
“Newman to Now,” an interactive virtual exhibit curated by Memphis Heritage and funded in part by Humanities Tennessee, encapsulates that balance of the necessity for reflection and the desire to look forward. The exhibit focuses on the photography of Don Newman, a native Memphian whose passion for his hometown led him to capture many now-iconic images of its landmarks, both the mundane and the celebrated.
Gary Walpole
Today, the cars on Beale have mostly been replaced by pedestrians, but a careful look reveals that many buildings have survived relatively unchanged — at least on the outside. One constant, in both images, is the lighted sign outside A. Schwab.
In “Newman to Now,” Newman’s original photographs, shot between 1940 and the 1960s, are paired with contemporary color images of the same location, taken by Gary Walpole. Beale Street, the Mid-South Coliseum, the Wonder Bread Factory, Sears Crosstown (now the pioneering “vertical village” Crosstown Concourse) — most of the buildings remain more or less unchanged, while the city can be seen growing and shifting around them.
The fashions, automobiles, and advertisements are drastically different when the viewer compares Newman’s black-and-white photos with Walpole’s meticulously recreated versions. Walpole usually shoots in color, but his images are otherwise as much like the originals as possible. He gets the angle exactly right, sometimes resorting to acrobatics when the landscape has shifted, necessitating the use of a long ladder to snap the shot.
Don Newman
Erected in the late 1800s, the Tennessee Brewing Company was one of the largest breweries in the South, and Goldcrest 51 could be found at any bar or cafe in Memphis.
The photos’ similarities, of course, serve to highlight the differences in the subject matter, the strides Memphis has taken. The interplay between Walpole’s work and Newman’s tells the story of a changing Memphis, from the end of the Crump era through the civil rights movement.
Gary Walpole
After years of dormancy, the red-brick castle of the Tennessee Brewing Company is finally seeing new life, as residences and retail moved into the area.
Some landmarks have changed more than others. The gloriously ornate Warner Theater, an example of the Hollywood Baroque Revival style, is now the staid, businesslike One Commerce Square. Though the Chisca Hotel still stands on S. Main Street, the landscape around it is altered dramatically in the time between Newman’s and Walpole’s photos, even down to the buildings visible in the distance.
Don Newman
Then-and-now views of South Main show rather dramatic changes in the streetscape.
Andy Warhol famously said, “The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” These changes reveal something about the Memphis of today; they help mark the passage of time, the growth of a city that is both historic and striving to make its way into the future. For this, Newman’s catalogue, and the diligent work of Walpole and Memphis Heritage, is of incalculable value as a meter for transformation.
Gary Walpole
Look closely, though, and the Chisca Hotel seems to have defied time.
But don’t let us tell you. See for yourself.
Don Newman
The gloriously ornate Warner Theater
About Don Newman
A native Memphian, Don Newman was a professional photographer. His work is considered to be of great historical significance and is maintained by Memphis Heritage. Newman was born in 1919 and graduated from Tech High School in 1937. Shortly after graduating, he began working for the commercial and industrial photographer George Haley. In 1939 Don married Bertha Mae, to whom he was married until he passed away in 1994.
Don Newman
Newman worked briefly as a photographer for the Memphis Engraving Company, and then for Frank Hitchings, whom he eventually bought out with Jack Fury after Hitchings’ retirement.
“His work was all by hand,” Bertha remembers of her husband. “He took pictures, developed the film, and did the printing himself. He had a good life. It was an interesting life, and he liked that.” Photography in Newman’s time was a demanding craft. Practicing his art before the invention of digital memory cards and lightweight space-age plastics, Newman’s photography demanded willpower and dedication as he lugged an 80-pound tripod, a 25-pound view camera, and 10 film holders around Downtown Memphis. Newman’s efforts have helped capture Memphis landmarks — those that have vanished from the landscape and those that have remained a constant backdrop to social change — and shine a light on the city’s history.
About Gary Walpole
Self-described technology geek Gary Walpole was among the first of Memphis’ photographers to embrace the innovation of digital photography. With over 45 years of experience as a professional photographer, Walpole has continued to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to technology and innovation. He describes his approach as old-school know-how with cutting-edge devices and techniques.
“He [Don Newman] was really dedicated to preserving a lot of the places in Memphis that we hoped would never change but, eventually, so many of them did. Most of his life was spent in photography and photographing everything about the city of Memphis.” — Bertha Mae Newman, Don’s wife.
Bertha Newman
The Interactive Exhibit
The “Newman to Now” project’s website (hosted by VisualEyes has an interactive component, which allows visitors to take a virtual tour of Memphis through Newman’s photography, with side-by-side comparisons to Walpole’s photographs. Simply click on a local place of interest, and the website provides information about the building, including its architectural style, historical significance, and the ways it has changed throughout the years. Central Station at Main and G.E. Patterson is a great example — the viseyes.org site takes viewers through a virtual tour of the changes the building has undergone, even going so far as to explain why it’s no longer in use as a train station.
The “Newman to Now” exhibit’s interactive timeline
Events of historical significance, both locally and nationally, are listed in a timeline at the bottom of the page, giving the viewer greater context for a better understanding of how history has shaped the city.
Don Newman
Central Station in the 1950s.
The smallest things stick out — it’s bizarre to the point of being unnerving to see cars driving along Beale Street in Newman’s original. But the glowing neon of the A. Schwab sign is present in both Newman’s and Walpole’s photos, a comforting point of familiarity. The Mid-South Coliseum page has a through-the-ages quality. The first photo is a spiderweb of steel girders; the next is a completed coliseum. Walpole’s contemporary photo shows a building almost identical to the one shown in Newman’s, a fact made surreal by the public struggle, in recent years, to preserve and find a present-day use for the historic building. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most crucial changes leave no physical footprint.
Gary Walpole
The exterior of Central Station seems to have changed very little, though the former railroad station has been transformed into upscale apartments.
All in all, the exhibit is a look into the Memphis of a past era, even as it tells the story of how that city came to be the one in which we live today.
