John Calvin Coovert – Photographer

by Dennis Wolf

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John Calvin Coovert was a photographer in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. He took photos around the Mid-South and had studios and galleries in Greenville, Memphis, Vicksburg, Yazoo City, and other locations. He eventually settled in Memphis, where he worked until he passed away on August 18, 1937, and the age of 75.

He was born on July 5, 1862 to Mary and David Coovert of Danville, Kentucky. While still a young boy, Coovert took an early interest in photography and began an apprenticeship in Cincinnati, discovering that he was very good at it. According to the 1880 Federal Census, he went to work for the railroad in New River, Tennessee. New River, Tennessee, is an unincorporated community in Scott County in East Tennessee, which was pretty much the middle of nowhere back in 1880.

Sometime in 1887, he arrived in Greenville, Mississippi, and set up a studio, Patorno and Coovert, in Greenville and Yazoo City, Mississippi.[i] In 1889, he won a $500 cash prize from the U.S. government for his photographs of cotton fields. Also in 1889, the studio won a gold medal for “best state views” at the World’s Fair in Paris, France.[ii]

Coovert’s brother, George, who worked in a sawmill, was killed in 1890. Coovert and his wife, Florence, took in George’s four-year old daughter, Mary, and raised her as their own. By 1900, the Coovert family was living in Vicksburg, Mississippi.[iii]

In 1891, Coovert opened his own studio, Coovert’s Photograph Gallery, and worked in Greenville, Memphis, Vicksburg, and Yazoo City. In the early 1900s, Coovert moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and his first notation in city directories is in 1902. The entry in the 1902 Polk City Directory reads, “COOVERT JOHN C. Successor to McCrary & Branson, photographer, 241-245 Main (2^nd fl), tel 2178, res same.”[iv] Shortly thereafter, he established the photography department at the Memphis Police Department. He served as the official photographer for the police and fire departments for fifteen years.

Coovert on the river bluff with Civil War canon, undated[v]

After he settled in Memphis, where he lived for the rest of his life, his success as a commercial photographer increased significantly. His photos were often reproduced as advertisements, postcards, brochures, and baseball cards. During the Great Depression Coovert served as head of the district’s Photographers Code Authority, which was part of the National Recovery Administration. He was a member of the Associated Photographers of Memphis and the Photographer’s Association of America. When he died, he had over 710,000 negatives in his store room.

For over 50 years as a successful commercial photographer, Coovert captured images throughout the Mid-South. He is best known for his photographs of the life along the Mississippi River in Mississippi and Tennessee, and the south’s cotton industry. He also documented a wide range of subjects and social conditions, including the programs of the Memphis Health, Police, and Public Works Departments. His last studio in Memphis, Tennessee, was located in Bry’s Department Store at 63 N. Main Street. He died on August 18, 1937, and was 75 years old. He is buried in Funks Grove Cemetery, in McLean, Illinois.[vi]

Below are some of the many photos taken by John Calvin Coovert during his lifetime.

The J. C. Coovert logo for his studio at 63 North Main, advertising “the only studio in Memphis with an elevator.”[vii] His studio was on the third floor.

Cotton Industry Related Photos

After the Civil War many former slaves remained in the south doing the only work they knew: farming cotton as sharecroppers. A fast worker could pick 300 pounds of cotton in a day, and it was hard work. This photo is circa 1900.[viii]

Loading cotton in to boxcars, circa 1900[ix]

Cotton pickers harvesting cotton by hand, early 20th century[x]

Cotton-picking scene posed for the MGM motion picture “Hallelujah.” Hallelujah was one of the first movies with an all-African American cast produced by a major studio. The movie was filmed in Tennessee and Arkansas and released on August 20, 1929. This photo was made at the Wilson Plantation in Wilson, Arkansas, in 1928.[xi] In 1951, this photo was displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York in an exhibition titled “Forgotten Photographers.”[xii]

Dixie’s Field of the Cloth of Gold, The Nation’s Billion Dollar Crop, circa 1915.[xiii]

IC Railroad cars loaded with cotton[xiv]

Picking cotton somewhere in Mississippi in 1890-something, exact year unknown.[xvi]

Mississippi River front at Memphis, unknown date[xvii]

Mississippi Riverfront at Memphis, exact date unknown, but 1903 or later.[xviii] The sign on the barn-style building on the right side of the photo is the office of the Patterson Transfer Company. The company was founded on January 11, 1856 to provide stagecoach service between Memphis and LaGrange, Tennessee, and mule drawn wagons to move cotton from riverboats to storage warehouses. As time progressed, the company expanded it services to transport people, to move all kinds of goods and freight, and to store goods in their own warehouses. The company is still in business today as Patterson Warehouses, Inc.[xix]

Memphis Landing.[xx] The exact date is unknown, but this was taken between 1903 and 1912, as the U. S. Custom House in the background in the upper right corner has the addition which was completed in 1903. The steamboat in the left side of the picture is the Sadie Lee, which was built in 1901 at a cost of $10,000 ($370,349 in 2024). The Sadie Lee hit a snag and sunk at Dennis Landing, Mississippi, about 122 river miles south of Memphis, on November 15, 1912.[xxi]

The Steamboat Robert E. Lee at dock waiting to be loaded with cotton.[xxii]

Cotton Waiting to be ginned at Planters Oil Mill in Greenville, MS, circa 190X.[xxiii]

Memphis Warehouse Company plant in New South Memphis.[xxiv]

Memphis Warehouse Company plant in New South Memphis.[xxv]

The Memphis Flood of 1912

One of the worst floods to ever occur on the Mississippi River in March and April 1912. A heavy snowmelt in the north caused the flood. Levees all along the river failed, causing catastrophic flooding, damaging a lot of property, and displacing many families. The river reached flood stage (35 feet) on March 21, and remained above flood stage for 60 days. The river eventually reached 43.5 feet at Memphis on April 3 through April 6. Because most of downtown Memphis was built on the bluff, that part of the city was spared. However, flooding on the Bayou Gayoso, the Wolf River, and their tributaries caused significant damage and displaced 1,200 people. Many homes were swamped with as much as six-feet of water. African-Americans were especially hard hit and they lived in many of those areas. This was the first major flood on the Mississippi River to be photographed, and J. C. Coovert took many photos of the flood.[xxvi]

This photo, which has been colorized, was taken on April 6, 1912 on North Second Street at Mill, looking north. The Knox Drug Store was at 534 North Second at Mill.[xxvii] The houses north of the drug store are long gone, and the block between Mill Avenue and Greenlaw Avenue today is occupied by the Renaissance Village Apartments. The two-story brick building in the photo, however, is still there. Faxon Gillis Homes and the UT Health Sciences Center Health Hub occupy the building today.

Flood-African-American Memphians camping on the levee in a shanty home.[xxviii]

All I saved was the Bible[xxix]

Refugees seeking shelter on a levee in the flood of 1912.[xxx]

African-American Memphians camping on the levee during the flood of 1912.[xxxi]

Stock on a mound surrounded by high water.[xxxii]

Memphians at Camp Crump, a temporary relief shelter, after the flood of 1912 which forced them out of their homes. This is a group photo of 37 unnamed
African American men from the camp, shown in background.[xxxiii]

Refugees at Camp Crump, 1912. [xxxiv]

Flood-High water Memphis Street Railway levee.[xxxv]

Flood-High water Main and Mill, April 1912.[xxxvi]

Flood-High water Main Street and Mill Street, in front of the at the Memphis Gas Lights Company, April 1912.[xxxvii]

Flood by gas works, April 8, 1912. The tall structure in the photo is one of the two gasometers at the Memphis Consolidated Gas & Electric Company, which was located on Main Street between Mill and Greenlaw. There were two gasometers: one container had a capacity of 84,200 cubic feet, and the second had a capacity of 324,000 cubic feet. A gasometer was a large container in which natural gas or coal gas was stored at near atmospheric pressure and ambient temperatures. The “lid” on the container rose and fell with the quantity of stored gas. The weight of the lid provided the pressure used to move the gas through gas mains and pipes.[xxxviii]

Pumping out water at the Memphis Gas Works, 700,000 gallons in 24 hours.[xxxix]

Pumping out water at gas works, 4,000,000 gallons in 24 hours on April 17, 1912.[xl] The tank in the picture is most likely one of the oil storage tanks on the property, located on the southeast corner of North Main and Greenlaw Avenue.[xli]

Pumping out 4,000,000 gallons of water from the gas works in 24 hours.[xlii]

Colorized photo.

Miscellaneous Works

Greenville, Mississippi, Fire Department, 1898. W. H. Mellor, President, M. Hartman, Secretary, Sam Rucks, Forman, Harry March, 1st Assistant Forman, Ed Kleipsich, Driver.[xliii]

Birthday Card.[xliv]

Unidentified African American man and woman, circa 190X.[xlv]

Throwing up a new levee on the river front. Old levee was sloughing, March 30, 1897.[xlvi]

Camp Ben Humphreys, Vicksburg, Miss., 1897.[xlvii]

Delta Guards, Company E, First Regiment, Greenville, Miss., 1897.[xlviii]

Delta Guards dining hall, 1897.[xlix]

Downtown Memphis from a park.[l] The photo of Coovert standing next to a cannon was taken in this park.

Court House laboratory.[li]

S. Custom House before 1903.[lii]

Postcard, U. S. Custom House after addition was added in 1903.[liii]

View of Main Street, Memphis, Tennessee, looking south from the Madison Avenue intersection at 5:45 pm on August 5, 1912.[liv]

Madison Avenue looking east from Front Street, circa 1910.[lv]

Center hallway, passenger area of steamboat, circa 190X.[lvi]

The Sprague towboat towing coal December 1906.[lvii] The Sprague was built in 1901 and was the world’s largest steam powered sternwheeler towboat. She was named “Big Mama” and could push 56 coal barges at one time. In 1907, the Sprague set a world record for towing 60 barges of coal, weighing 67,307 tons on a 612-mile voyage from Memphis to Baton Rouge. She was decommissioned as a towboat at Memphis on March 5, 1948.[lviii]

William P. Metcalf home at 1882 Central Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, undated.[lix] The home was torn down and replaced in 2022.

Composite photograph of the senior class of the Memphis Hospital Medical College in Memphis, Tennessee, for the academic year 1908-1909.

Faculty (top row, l-r): B.F. Turner, D.M. Hall, F.D. Smythe, J.L. Andrews, B.G. Henning, C.H. Bright, J.L. Minor, F.A. Jones, E.E. Francis, J.J. Huddleston, J.B. McElroy; Second row: R.F. Mason, W.B. Burns, P.M. Farrington, J.C. Ayres, R.G. Henderson, D.M. Henning, W.B. Rogers (Dean), W.T. Black, W.S. Lawrence, J.L. McGehee, E. Williams, H.F. Minor, J.W. Barksdale; Third row: J.L. Beauchamp, J.H. Carter, W.T. Braun, William F. Clary, A.C. Lewis, J.D. Bridger, B.C. McMahon, B.N. Dunavant, B. Malone, C.W. Edwards; Students (top row): H.S. Armistead (Tenn.), W.M. Barnes (Tenn.), R.K. Baker (Ala.), C.Z. Ballard, L.W. Bell (Va.), W.H. Banks (Miss.); Second row: M.L. Bearden (Ark.), W.C. Blackwell (Ala.), J.O. Boals (Tenn.), E.O. Bond (La.), C.L. Brewster (La.), H.D. Brown (Ala.), G.S. Bryan (Miss.), W.W. Bryan (Miss.), W.N. Burgess (Tex.), E.B. Cook (La.); Third row: H.R. Carr (Miss.), C.C. Conner (Miss.), J.R. Crosby (Miss.), J.J. Cullings (Tenn.), J.T. Darden (Miss.), L.R. Polk (Tenn.), F.E. Aycock (Tenn.), J.T. Knowles (Mo.), C.M. Harwell (Tenn.) (President), J.H. Hughes (Miss.) (Vice-President), J.C. Howell (Ark.) (Secretary), A.J. Reynolds (La.) (Treasurer), C.E. Putnam (Ala.) (Valedictorian), H.F. Dickenson (Tenn.), W.L. Davis (La.), M.M. Duggan (La.), D.V. Donaldson (La.), A.E. Douglass (La.); Fourth row: H. Dickson (Tenn.), G.W. Eubanks (Miss.), C.L. Frost (Miss.), J.J. Fleming (Tenn.), D. Galloway (Tenn.), J.A. Gatlin (La.), J.H. Gerald (Miss.), H.H. Goyer (Miss.), J.M. Guthrie (Miss.), W.W. Hatcher (Ark.), W.R. Hand (Miss.), W.B. Harpole (Miss.), M.V. Hargrove (La.), L.D. Howell (Ark.), J.W. Howell (Miss.), W.J. Hutson (Miss.), N.R. Hosey (Miss.), J.A. Hughes (Miss.), A.W. Harris (Okla.), I.M. Jones (La.); Fifth row: W.B. Hunter (La.), R.H. Jordan (Tex.), O.L. Kidd (La.), C.E. Kitchens (Ark.), A.J. Kisner (Miss.), A.B. La Cour (La.), A.L. Lane (Tex.), L.E. Larche (La.), J.A. Ledbetter (Tenn.), S.A. Looper (Okla.), W.L. Lockman (Tenn.), S.B. Locker (Tex.), E.E. Lunsford (Miss.), J.O. Mathis (Ore.), E.G. Merriwether (Miss.), W.E. Manning (Ark.), C.E. Mullins (Miss.), W.S. Mims (Ala.), C.S. Meeks (Miss.); Sixth row: J.I. Mayfield (Miss.), C.W. McLain (Ark.), G.W. McConathy (La.), W. McDade (La.), J.S. McNeal (Miss.), J.M. Newsom (La.), S.D. Newell (Miss.), J.W. Oursler (Tenn.), D.B. Owen (Tex.), C.J. Parris (Tex.), C.G. Pardue (La.), A.V. Richmond (Miss.), J.I. Reynolds (La.), J.S. Rollins (Okla.), D.M. Rumph (Tex.), W.B. Saunders (Tex.), J.W. Simpson (Ala.), S.D. Sherborne (Ark.); Seventh row: F.L. Summers (Miss.), J.H. Stephens (La.), J.H. Smith (Tenn.), I.S. Smith (Tex.), G.E. Stovall (La.), J.W. Scott (La.), S.L. Stephenson (Ky.), H.A. Tynes (La.), R.I. Vines (La.), W.W. Verser (Ark.), C.S. Wilson (Miss.), C.R. Waters (Tex.), W.T. Watson (Miss.), G. Max. Watkins (Ark.), J.C. Walker (Miss.), J.C. Williams (Okla.), K.P. Wood (Miss.).[lx]

[i] https://historyinphotos.blogspot.com/2015/09/j-c-coovert-collection.html

[ii] https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/coovert/colldesc

[iii] https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/coovert

[iv] https://search.register.shelby.tn.us/

[v] https://historic-memphis.com/biographies/photographers/photographers.html

[vi] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/113017747/john_calvin-coovert

[vii] https://historic-memphis.com/biographies/photographers/photographers.html

[viii] Cotton: From Southern Fields to the Memphis Market, William Bearden, 2005

[ix] https://historyinphotos.blogspot.com/2015/09/j-c-coovert-collection.html

[x] https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/speccoll-mss-commercialappeal4/61/

[xi] https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a08729/

[xii] https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3285