CHICAGO — Union Pacific is donating the original artwork it commissioned for the grand opening of the Pullman National Monument to the National Park Service for permanent display.
The poster, created by Chicago artist Joe Nelson, is in the style of UP national park travel posters of the 1900s and honors the resilience and strength of Pullman porters, as well as their significance in the civil rights movement. Nelson discussed its creation in a Q&A on the National Park Foundation website.
“For me and a lot of people in the Black community, we see Pullman porters as a symbol of Black men who were able to pull themselves and their families out of hardships,” Claire Anderson, vice president of Union Pacific’s Black Employee Network in Chicago, said in a media advisory. “Every person that came to the Pullman National Monument grand opening wanted to take a picture of the poster and so many folks wanted to know if they could even buy the poster. Everyone knew how important it was.”
The artwork will be donated today in a 1 p.m. ceremony at the entrance to the National Monument, an event featuring Chicago UP representatives Anderson (manager-track construction), Benita Gibson (general superintendent-Commuter Operations) and Liisa Stark (assistant vice president-public affaris), along with park superintendent Teri Gage.
UP’s support of the National Park Foundation includes a $1 million donation to the Pullman National Monument project in 2015 and $7 million in donations to the foundation since 2018.
As a small child in the 1950s and 60s, I witnessed Pullman porters in white guru jackets setting our beds in our room.
Coach porters on railway payroll were dressed similar to conductors in shirt, coat and tie, especially on Southern Railway, the L&N Railroad and Missouri Pacific Lines. So, I mistook them as conductors, unaware of job discrimination prohibiting African-Americans from becoming conductors.
When you think of how hard working and intelligent these porters were, it makes it even harder to understand how so many white people who rode these Pullman cars looked down on the porters and on African Americans in general. I grew up hearing (in the Northeast) numerous descriptions of African Americans that made little sense to me as a child, and now absolutely disgust me.
This poster is a reminder of the dignity of these men, never giving in to the emotions that had to come up under the circumstances. And a reminder of how today, on Amtrak, car attendants work so hard to provide a good sleeper experience.
Great & gorgeous gesture from the great & gorgeous Union Pacific Railroad!
Hopefully each rail enthusiast on Earth remembers that without the revolutionary Pullman sleepers and the impeccable Pullman porters, there never would have been any contemporary sleeping-cars and their kind attendants belonging to different night train operators (i.e. CIWL, DSG, TEN, Nightjet etc) in railway history!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
That’s a damn attractive poster and I do not want to sound picky, but three questions came to mind as I studied it: 1. The lettering on the car says “sleeping car.” Shouldn’t it say “Pullman?” 2. The window spacing on the car looks like a coach. Am I not going back far enough in history? (I guess this applies to my first question, also.) 3. Would the Pullman conductor on this man’s train allow him to set his cap at such a cocked angle? Wasn’t the Pullman Company a stickler for correct uniformity?