US engineer
and entrepreneur who developed the Pullman railway car from 1864. It was
not the first sleeping carriage but it was the most luxurious. Pullman cars
were initially staffed entirely by black porters whose only income was from
tips. In 1937 the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters became the first black
union recognized by a US corporation.
Pullman left school at 14 to become a cabinetmaker. In an attempt to improve
the standard of comfort of rail travel, he built his first Pioneer Sleeping
Car 1864. He formed the Pullman Palace Car Company 1867 and in 1881 the
town of Pullman, Illinois, was built for his workers. One of the most famous
strikes in US labour history took place at Pullman in 1894. |