★ REP YOUR TOWN ★ HOMETOWN GEAR ★ PRINTED TO ORDER ★ WHERE YOU FROM? ★ REP YOUR TOWN ★ HOMETOWN GEAR ★ PRINTED TO ORDER ★ WHERE YOU FROM? ★ REP YOUR TOWN ★ HOMETOWN GEAR ★ PRINTED TO ORDER ★ WHERE YOU FROM? ★ REP YOUR TOWN ★ HOMETOWN GEAR ★ PRINTED TO ORDER ★ WHERE YOU FROM? ★ REP YOUR TOWN ★ HOMETOWN GEAR ★ PRINTED TO ORDER ★ WHERE YOU FROM? ★ REP YOUR TOWN ★ HOMETOWN GEAR ★ PRINTED TO ORDER ★ WHERE YOU FROM?
Old-school engraved artwork in burnt orange: the sun coming up over the Memphis skyline on the bluff, with the river and bridge below, Memphis arched across the top and est. 1819 underneath, the year the city was founded. Printed to order in the USA.
Heavyweight 100% cotton
Classic unisex fit
What's on this shirt
Old-school engraved artwork in burnt orange: the sun coming up over the skyline on the bluff, a long bridge and the river below. MEMPHIS arches across the top, with TENNESSEE · EST. 1819 underneath.
1819 is when it started. John Overton, James Winchester and Andrew Jackson founded the city that year on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, high enough above the Mississippi to stay dry at flood stage, and named it after the ancient Egyptian capital on the Nile.
Downtown Memphis along the Mississippi River from the air. Photo: Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Gift idea: A good pick for the history buff, or anyone whose family has been in Memphis for generations.
Questions about this shirt
Why does it say est. 1819?
Memphis was founded on May 22, 1819 and incorporated in 1826.
Why is it called Memphis?
The founders named it after the ancient capital of Egypt, which also sat on a great river, the Nile.
What sizes and colors does it come in?
Sizes S to 3XL in 12 colors: Black, Natural, Sand, White, Sport Grey, Ash, Light Blue, Navy, Forest Green, Maroon, Military Green, Charcoal. Every size is $29.
How is it made?
Heavyweight 100% cotton, classic unisex fit. Each shirt is printed to order in the USA when you buy it.
Can I return or exchange it?
Each shirt is printed to order, so we can't take returns or exchanges for size or a change of mind. If it arrives misprinted or damaged, tell us within 30 days with a photo and we'll replace or refund it, free. Check the size chart above before you order.
A little Memphis history
Memphis sits on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff, a spot high enough above the Mississippi to stay dry at flood stage, which is why people kept settling here for centuries. Spain built Fort San Fernando on the bluff in 1795, and soldiers, traders and squatters lived around it before the city was ever official. John Overton, James Winchester and Andrew Jackson partnered to found the city in 1819, naming it after the ancient Egyptian capital on the Nile.
Growth was slow at first, slowed by economic depression, a river sandbar, yellow fever outbreaks and a losing battle over the county seat. By the 1840s things turned around as Memphis became a stagecoach and rail terminus and northern Mississippi opened to settlement, and the city built out its cotton trade, wharves, and a fire department. Tennessee actually canceled the city's charter in 1879 after repeated yellow fever epidemics gutted the population, and Memphis didn't get a new charter until 1893.
The 20th century brought the birth of the blues through W.C. Handy and later rock and roll and soul through Sun Studio and Stax Records. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel, a loss the city carries and now honors at the National Civil Rights Museum on that same site.
