This program will be held in person at the Newberry. Register for free in advance here.
As we welcome visitors to the library, we're continuing to closely monitor health and safety conditions related to COVID-19 in Chicago. Click here for our visitor policy.
Drawing upon her rigorous research within the Newberry Library’s Pullman Company Archives, Miriam Thaggert details the pleasures and perils of Black women train travelers with a focus on the unique experiences of the Pullman Company maid, the Pullman’s “Handmaidens for Travelers.” Miriam Thaggert will be in conversation with Mia Bay.
Miriam Thaggert is Associate Professor of English at SUNY Buffalo.
Mia Bay is Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Chair in American History at the University of Pennsylvania.
Explore the Newberry's Pullman Employee Records and our Pullman Digital Collection, which includes hundreds of Pullman car floor plans and other technical drawing dating from 1870 through 1969.
Purchase these books from the Newberry Bookshop: Miriam Thaggert's Riding Jane Crow: African American Women on the American Railroad and Mia Bay's Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance.
This event is part of programming for our exhibition Handmaidens for Travelers: The Pullman Company Maids, which will be open June 3 through September 16.
Your generosity is vital in keeping the library’s programs, exhibitions, and reading rooms free and accessible to everyone. Make a donation today.