By 1885, the Pullman Company had already become one of America's largest and best-known firms. As this map, an advertisement for the company, shows, Pullman cars carried passengers from coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico. As a manufacturer of passenger and freight railroad cars, the Pullman Company was closely involved -- financially and managerially -- with most of the nation's railroads. The company had also begun to expand into Europe. By the end of the century, Pullman was one of America's largest companies as well as the country's single largest employer of African Americans, almost all of whom worked as Pullman porters, the most familiar symbol of the company and its service.

Artist: Unknown
Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-34811)