The Struggle for Workers’ Control

The strike at the Pullman Car Works in 1894 was not only a reaction to the layoffs and pay cuts during the deepest depression of the nineteenth century. Rather, it was the most spectacular event in the decades-long struggle between skilled craftsmen and Pullman management to control how workers labored and what they earned.

Tickets include access to the Exhibit Hall, please note, come early if you want to see our new exhibit: From Wrecking Ball to National Park!

Be sure to visit the Pullman National Historical Park Visitor Center, open from 9:00-5:00 every day, for an overview of Pullman, the man, the company, and the town.

If you enjoy this program and/or your visit to the Exhibit Hall, please donate to support the Historic Pullman Foundation, the official friend's group of the National Park. Your donations keep the money local and help both organizations share the amazing story that is Pullman.

Susan E. Hirsch is Professor Emerita of History at Loyola University Chicago.

She is the author of After the Strike: A Century of Labor Struggle at Pullman (University of Illinois Press, 2003); Roots of the American Working Class: The Industrialization of Crafts in Newark, 1800-1860 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978); and, with Robert Goler, A City Comes of Age: Chicago in the 1890s (Chicago Historical Society, 1990). She is co-editor, with Lewis Erenberg, of The War in American Culture: Society and Consciousness during World War II (University of Chicago Press, 1996).

Currently, she is writing a book on ethnic and racial relations entitled Cosmopolitan Chicago, 1890-1930.

Pullman is easily accessible by the Metra Electric train line. Check the schedule and plan your visit

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Pullman Exhibit Hall, 11141 South Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, United States