Historic Pullman Collection

Historical Note

The town of Pullman, Illinois was founded in 1880 by George M. Pullman as a site for his car-building operations (Pullman Palace Car Company) and to house his employees. The area originally purchased by Pullman covered nearly 4000 acres and ran from 87th Street to 130th Street. The developed area was much smaller and was bounded by South Langley Street to the east, Cottage Grove to the west, 115th Street to the south, and continuing a few blocks north of 111th Street. Pullman saw many advantages in the Calumet site, including the topography and fertility of the soil. He also believed that in choosing this area for his model town, it was far enough removed from what he called the "evil influences" of the City of Chicago, and would prove to make better and more content workers. Also important were commercial and industrial factors. As Chicago was the transportation center of the Midwest, all railroads entering the city passed through the Calumet region.

The master builder of Pullman was Solon Spencer Beman, a young architect from New York. He was commissioned by George Pullman to begin designing the town in 1879. Together with landscape architect Nathan F. Barrett, complete plans for the buildings and grounds of the town were laid out, and construction began in the spring of 1880. By the following year, the first residents began to move in, and the company car shops went into operation. The town gradually began to take shape as residences, public buildings, paved streets and parks were built, but it wasn’t until 1884 that this undertaking was completed.

Many people seeking employment were now attracted to this area, and Pullman soon became the focal point for the continued development and expansion of the Calumet region. As a result of this growth, the town was annexed to the City of Chicago in 1889 along with the Village of Hyde Park.

For the next few years, the town continued to grow, and the production level of the Pullman Palace Car Company was high, until 1893 when the country entered another business depression due to the over expansion of the railroad industry. As a result, George Pullman laid off many employees and drastically cut wages. The employees were already unhappy with the high cost of living in the town, and angry because the wages were cut, whereas rent and other expenses stayed the same. They soon decided to take action in the form of a grievance committee. George Pullman was unwilling to compromise, and the Pullman Strike of 1894 was the result, which served as a milestone in the continuing development of the labor movement.

Three years later George Pullman died, and drastic policy changes were made in the company that would affect the whole town. A decision by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1898, forced the company to relinquish all of its non-industrial property. Though the deadline for this was postponed, nearly half of the available property in the town fell into private ownership. When the company finally sold its non-industrial property, it also discontinued the maintenance of the buildings and grounds, and the physical appearance of the town declined.

A large turnover in population also contributed to the town’s decline. In 1908 the company switched to all-steel car production, and as a result skilled workers were no longer needed. Many moved away and were replaced by unskilled immigrants. This trend continued until the late 1920s, when the community began to stabilize, and the town of Pullman became just another Chicago neighborhood.

Today the town of Pullman stands as a historical and architectural link to the past. Though many of the original buildings have been demolished, others such as the Administration Building and Clock Tower, the Greenstone Church, the Hotel Florence and numerous residences are still standing.

In 1969, the Pullman district was designated an Illinois Historic Landmark, a National Landmark, in 1970, and a Chicago Landmark in 1972. In 2015, the National Park Service named Pullman a National Monument.

Scope and Content

Series 1: The Pullman Company, 1892-1979

The material in this series includes such items as annual reports, brochures, bulletins, news clippings and related material. The files are divided into two separate categories:

Subseries A: Articles on the Pullman Company

Comprising general information on the building, employees, and the company itself, including items such as brochures, news clippings, and excerpts and reprints of articles from various professional journals. The material is arranged in alphabetical order by subject.

Subseries B: Publications of the Pullman Company

The publications of the company includes annual reports, informational brochures, and weekly bulletins and newsletters. The files are arranged in alphabetical order by subject.

Series 2: The Pullman Family, 1929-1948.

This series is comprised of biographical data on George Pullman and members of his family, and a reprint of his will made in 1897.

Series 3: The Pullman Free School of Manual Training, 1916-1950.

This series includes announcements, news clippings, programs and publications covering the forty-year history of the school. The material is separated into two categories:

Subseries A: Programs and Activities

The activities of the student body are reflected by announcements, news clippings and programs. The material is arranged in alphabetical order by type of material.

Subseries B: High School Publication

This series contains a complete set of the school yearbook, the Pullman Annual, which in its early years was published twice yearly, from its beginning in 1921 to 1950 when the school closed its doors. The yearbooks are arranged in chronological order.

Series 4: The Pullman Educational Foundation, 1958, 1977.

This series consists of news clippings and reports on the Pullman Educational Foundation, the organization that was set up by George Pullman to fund a school for the children of his employees. The material is arranged in alphabetical order by subject.

Series 5: The Pullman Strike, 1894, 1939, 1946.

This series includes a booklet by the Rev. William Carwardine, an active participant in the strike, reprints of articles written during the strike, and reports and statements made by the company, the employees and George Pullman. The files are arranged alphabetically by type of material and by title within.

Series 6: Pullman Town, 1882-1972.

This series contains articles, brochures, historical sketches, news clippings, programs and related material on the business establishments, organizations, people, and schools of Pullman, Illinois. The files are divided into two categories:

Subseries A: Community History, 1880s-1970s.

The history of the town and the functions of organizations such as the Pullman Athletic Association, Pullman Land Association and the Women’s Society of Pullman are reflected in this series through brochures, historical sketches, news clippings and programs. Of special interest is a demographic questionnaire from the 1880s, which is very similar to the census of today, though much more detailed. The material is arranged alphabetically by subject.

Subseries B: Community Publications, 1893-1977.

Many of the publications of this series were written by residents of the town, such as Bertha Chadwick Medsker’s series of articles on pioneers of Pullman which appeared weekly in the Calumet Index in 1954 & 1955, or Our Community, a monthly bulletin published by the Pullman Trust & Savings Bank, which included articles on the past and current activities of the town. Also included is Pullman-The City of Brick, by H.R. Koopman, a local photographer whose photographs and narratives of the area captured much of its history in detail. Other publications include student dissertations, and reprints of articles from professional journals. The material is arranged in alphabetical order by title.

Non-manuscript Material:

An index to the photographs can be found following the Container List (the majority of these photographs were taken by Henry R. Koopman, a local photographer).

Also removed is one scrapbook on the Town of Pullman. The scrapbook contains news clippings from various local papers such as the Calumet Index, The ChristianLeader, The Sunday Herald and the Pullman Journal, excerpts of articles from various professional journals such as The Nation and Railway Review, and a number of programs and pamphlets giving a brief history of the Town of Pullman. The scrapbook covers such subjects as the Pullman Free School of Manual Training, the Pullman Palace Car Company, the Pullman Public Library, and the Pullman Trust and Savings Bank, from the early 1880s to 1927. Though the scrapbook is placed in its own box, it is still maintained with the manuscript collection. See Box 10.

Oversize

The following books were transferred to the Special Collections Book collection:

The following items have been removed from the collection.

Arcade Journal (Newspaper: Pullman, A-3-1 Illinois) [Available on microform.]
Volume 1 –Volume 3, complete
1889 Nov 30 -- 1892 Dec 21
Continued as: Pullman Journal
Vol. IV No. 2 1893 Jan 14
Vol. V No. 26 1894 Jun 30
Both laid in Volume 3

Important subjects and personalities

• The Arcade Building
• "Our Pullman Pioneers"
• The Pullman Athletic Association
• The Pullman Band (see Audio-Visual Collection, Appendix A)
• The Pullman Company:
• Annual Reports and Statements
  The Carbuilder
  The Pullman Journal
  The Pullman News
  Pullman Production Methods
• The Pullman Family
• The Pullman Free School of Manual Training: The Pullman Annual
• The Pullman Strike
• Pullman Town as a Social Experiment
• The Pullman Trust & Savings Bank

Container List

Series 1: The Pullman Company

Subseries A: Articles on the Pullman Company

Subseries B: Publications of the Pullman Company

Series 2: The Pullman Family

Series 3: The Pullman Free School of Manual Training

Subseries A: Programs and Activities

Subseries B: High School Publications

Series 4: The Pullman Educational Foundation

Series 5: The Pullman Strike

Series 6: The Pullman Town

Subseries A: Community History

Series 6: The Pullman Town

Subseries B: Community Publications

Supplement 1

Photographs

Businesses:

Churches

Clubs and Organizations

Municipal Agencies

Parks

Portraits

Schools

Streets

Transportation