I have only found one person who knew Coovert.

Clifford Poland told me that Coovert was an "artiste" , "short in stature" and a dapper man. He explained that. Memphis was the center of the cotton industry. It therefore became a convention center where people in various businesses met. Their meetings were often photographed .
The Brotherhood of St. Andrew Twenty-First Annual Convention. Memphis, Tenn. Oct. 17th to 21st, 1906. Cirkut photo by Coovert, Library of Congress.

The cameras used were "banquet" cameras. These cameras were quite large, and they were mounted on 15 foot high tripods. Here we see an outfit created by George Lawrence, the famous San Francisco photographer.

Poland described the lighting that they used: "In the banquet photos we used a flash holder which was a trough with a reflector behind it. We poured fresh flash powder into the trough and placed a small cap like a dynamite blasting cap which was connected to a trigger that sent an electric current. We might have several of them around the rooms each attended by a man. We stretched large canvas-like bags to catch the smoke at a place like the Peabody."

The other camera, which was released in 1904 was the Cirkut Camera. You will see that on many of the photos in the cotton fields. The Cirkut camera actually had a geared base and a geared film take-up that allowed the camera to turn up to 360 degrees, exposing the whole panorama.