Newberry Library - Handmaidens for Travelers: The Pullman Company Maids Exhibition

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Open book Handmaidens for Travelers: The Pullman Company Maids Exhibition

Title Handmaidens for Travelers: The Pullman Company Maids Exhibition

Date 2022-06-03/2022-09-16

Subjects Exhibitions

Description The Pullman Company maids have long been overshadowed by the more well-known Pullman porters. Handmaidens for Travelers, on view in the Newberry galleries June 3 through September 16, is helping to tell their stories.

For many Americans, riding on a Pullman train gave them access to unparalleled service, style, and luxury. For the Pullman Company’s Black employees, the same train compartment offered stable employment while presenting formidable risks and challenges.

Billed as “handmaidens for travelers,” Pullman maids navigated the demands of white passengers and the watchful eye of the Pullman Company itself every time they boarded the train.

Drawing on extensive research in the Pullman Company Records at the Newberry, Handmaidens for Travelers highlights the complexity of the maids’ experiences. Visitors can see a range of archival materials, including several that have never before been presented to the public: applications and employee cards, an instruction manual for maids, advertisements, photographs, and one maid’s handwritten account of her work history.

Handmaidens for Travelers: The Pulllman Company Maids has been curated by Miriam Thaggert, Assocate Professor of English at the University of Buffalo. Thaggert is also the author of Riding Jane Crow: African American Women on the American Railroad.

Archival Collection Title Newberry Library Archives

Link to Catalog View record

Call Number NL Archives

BibID 991051478805867

Rights Status Copyright Not Evaluated

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

Size 7952px × 5304px 241.38 MB

File Created 06/29/2022

Filename 991051418805867_000000_05_000079_2022_06_14.tif

Unique Identifier NL1VCVW