Advertisement featuring a caricatured image of a Pullman porter: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

An advertisement for the Fashion Publicity Company clipped from The Ladies' Home Journal for September, 1919. The advertisement features a color illustration of a caricatured Pullman porter figure bringing shoes to a woman in a green train car. The porter is depicted in a grey uniform with dark pants. At bottom left is text with information on the Fashion Publicity Company and an imagined conversation between the woman and the porter about her "F.B. & C." shoes. On the reverse is a full-page color advertisement for Sunkist oranges.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1919
• Designed by: Fashion Publicity Company, American
• Commissioned by: F. Blumenthal Company, American, 1875 - 1919
• Published by: Ladies' Home Journal, American, founded 1883
• Subject of: Pullman Palace Car Company, American, 1867 - 1969
• Type: advertisements
• Medium: ink on paper
• Dimensions: H x W: 16 1/16 × 10 11/16 in. (40.8 × 27.1 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Advertising
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Pullman Porters
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Topic: Transportation
• Object number: 2014.63.63.41
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Public domain Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.