Page 194 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

352 ● (LABOR UNIONS.) BROTHERHOOD OF SLEEPING CAR PORTERS. A
Magnificent collection of material relative to the Pullman Porter and his work.
Included: a white dining car jacket and matching towel, a heavy metal tray with four stain-
less steel “Thermos” bottles for hot and cold water, a Porter’s summer cap with the
original brass Pullman badge; a Pullman whiskey glass, deck of cards, ashtray, brush, two
pencils, a “swizzle” stick, and a box of wooden matches. Two manuals: “Instructions to
Porters, Attendants and Bus Boys” (1952), “Commissary Instructions, Broiler-Buffet-Club
and Lounge Car Service,” (1939) The original metal step stool used to board passengers;
three early silver print “real photo postcards” of Pullman Porters, circa 1910-1920; #’s14
through17 of a series of 8 x 10 photo illustrations of Pullman Porters at work, probably
produced by the Pullman Company, a 1949 press photo of Pullman Porters marching in a
“R.R Fair Parade,” two original color booklets: “Pullman, On Dress Parade,” and “Go
Pullman, by Day . . . by Night” (circa 1950’s). Vp, circa 1910-1950’s [10,000/15,000]
A LARGE AND RARE REPRESENTATIVE COLLECTION OF PULLMAN PORTER MEMORA-
BILIA. Following the Civil War, the United States underwent a period of rebuilding, expansion
and significant shifts in population. Rail lines stretching from New York to Chicago, to points
West, meant longer and longer and more exhausting train trips. In 1867 George Pullman
formed the Pullman Palace Car Company, which began producing “sleeping cars” that could
accommodate passengers for long overnight trips across the country. In 1900, after buying out
virtually all of the competing companies, Pullman reorganized it all as “The Pullman
Company,” characterized by its trademark slogan “Travel and Sleep in Safety and Comfort.”
African Americans were not immediately used as porters, for the same reason they had difficulty
finding any job in the post war economy. But after George Pullman’s death in 1897, Robert
Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, became the company’s president and began to hire
African Americans. Not through any particular altruistic motive, but rather the image of the
African American as “servant” was more and more the choice to serve the company’s first class
white travelers, and their wages were significantly below the average. Additionally Pullman
porters were for many years treated as menial labor, and abused with long hours and harsh
working conditions. But in 1925, the porters were finally organized under the leadership of A.
Philip Randolph as The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. They became the model for
many unions, white and black for years to come.