Pullman: Labor, Race, and the Urban Landscape in a Company Town

FAIN: BI-50119-10

Newberry Library (Chicago, IL 60610-3305)
Daniel Greene (Project Director: March 2010 to June 2012)

Two one-week Landmarks workshops for fifty community college faculty members on the company town of Pullman, Illinois, the Pullman Car porters, and the culture of labor and race from 1880 to 1930.

The Newberry Library proposes to host two Landmarks of American History Workshops for Community College Faculty in Summer 2011 on "Pullman: Labor, Race, and the Urban Landscape in a Company Town." The two workshops will serve a total of fifty (50) community college faculty. These workshops will cast Pullman in a broad narrative of American history, using the neighborhood's history to explore the dramatic tensions of urban life in Chicago and the United States between 1880 and 1930. Teachers will benefit from site visits to Pullman and other Chicago neighborhoods and will have access to the Pullman Company Archives, held at the Newberry. Leading scholars on this history of Chicago, and on race, labor, and urban planning, will teach this workshop. Community college faculty who participate will be provided with digitized copies of the rich primary sources related to Pullman at the Newberry Library. The workshop content will be available through a Web site, administered by Newberry staff.

Associated Products

Pullman: Labor, Race, and the Urban Landscape in a Company Town (Web Resource)
Title: Pullman: Labor, Race, and the Urban Landscape in a Company Town
Author: Newberry Library
Abstract: In 2011, the Newberry's Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture hosted a Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for community college faculty on the company town of Pullman. This workshop provided community college teachers with a week of challenging intellectual engagement and reflection about their research and teaching on labor, race, and urban landscape—concepts central to the nation’s historical narrative. Participants spent three days at the Newberry and two days on site visits to the Pullman Historic District and other Chicago locations.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://publications.newberry.org/pullman/
Primary URL Description: This website tells the story of Pullman in all its facets—-the company from which it began, the model town it became, and the urban neighborhood it remains today. It situates Pullman within broader themes in the history of industrial America, exploring the ways in which Pullman illuminates the roles of labor, race, and urban development have played in shaping both the city and the nation.

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