Alt Pullman

Alt Pullman One more port of entry...Pullman mostly gets seen through a particular historical context. Alt Pullman is tending to another way of seeing... (See long)

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Pullman mostly gets seen through a very particular historical context riddled with nostalgia. Alt Pullman is tending to a more accurate and inclusive way of seeing. We are just getting started and it will always be a work in progress. We encourage multiple perspectives and hope to include the many "histories of Pullman", as well as point to some of the whimsey and irony that makes t

his incredibly interesting and multi-layered place work.

1. "The first two important truths of postmodernism [that we construct reality and that meaning is context-dependent] mean a multiperspective approach to reality is called for."
- Ken Wilber, The Marriage of Sense and Soul, p. 124-125

2. “The collage technique, that art of reassembling fragments of preexisting images in such a way as to form a new image, is the most important innovation in the art of this century. Found objects, chance creations, ready-mades (mass-produced items promoted into art objects) abolish the separation between art and life. The commonplace is miraculous if rightly seen, or recognized.”
-Charles Simic, Dime-Store Alchemy

3. “…the Water Genie told Haroun about the Ocean of the Streams of Story, and even though he was full of a sense of hopelessness and failure the magic of the Ocean began to have an effect on Haroun. He looked into the water and saw that it was made up of a thousand thousand thousand and one different currents, each one different currents, each one a different color, weaving in and out of one another like a liquid tapestry of breathtaking complexity: and [the Water Genie] explained that these were the Streams of Story, that each colored strand represented and contained a single tale. Different parts of the Ocean contained different sorts of stories, and as all the stories that had ever been told and many that were still in the process of being invented could be found here, the Ocean of the Streams of Story was in fact the biggest library in the universe. And because the stories were held here in fluid form, they retained the ability to change, to become new versions of themselves, to join up with other stories and so become yet other stories…”
- Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie (27 Sep 1990)"

June 20, 2026
06/02/2026

June 20, 2026

Celebrate Juneteenth and Father’s Day by rediscovering and honoring the stories of three Black founding families of Pullman’s North End.

06/02/2026

Pullman Porters & Maids: Invisible Labor, Visible Legacies, curated by Juelle Daley, presents a new body of work by artist Shane-Jahi Jackson, developed through his research residency at the Newberry Library in Chicago and informed by the archives of the Pullman Company. Through an ensemble of figur...

05/30/2026

In late March 1880, architect Irving K. Pond joined Solon S. Beman’s office and was immediately assigned to help design the first building constructed in the new town of Pullman: the Allen Paper Car Wheel Company. Located just north of the Pullman Passenger Car Works, the massive industrial complex stretched 360 feet and was divided into two large sections connected by a prominent two-story central block. The front portion contained the company offices, while the rear housed drying rooms, lathes, and manufacturing spaces used in the production of paper railroad car wheels. Additional attached buildings included a foundry for casting iron wheel hubs and centers, along with a pattern shop, blacksmith shop, boiler house, and storage rooms. Pond’s early work on the building’s roof trusses and construction details marked the beginning of his important role in shaping Pullman’s industrial landscape.

Pullman's sewage used to go to George's vegetable farm, the produce was then sold back to the residents for profit... no...
05/30/2026

Pullman's sewage used to go to George's vegetable farm, the produce was then sold back to the residents for profit... now it goes here. Guests can take home free oak tree saplings, plus milkweed seeds and native wildflower seeds while supplies last!

📣 Visit our Calumet Water Reclamation Plant TOMORROW, Saturday, May 30, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 400 East 130th Street, Chicago, Illinois! Discover how wastewater from homes and businesses is treated through guided tours. There will be hands-on STEAM activities for all ages along with information about careers with the MWRD. Guests can take home free oak tree saplings, plus milkweed seeds and native wildflower seeds while supplies last. Remember to bring any unused medications to drop off at the permanent collection box located at the entrance. Advanced registration is not required. See you soon!

📷 Work on a new roadway at the under-construction Calumet Water Reclamation Plant in Chicago on July 27, 1922.

05/17/2026

What about this for market hall... a community food garden

05/16/2026

Today in Labor History May 16, 1918: Congress passed the Sedition Act against radicals and pacifists, leading to the arrest, imprisonment, ex*****on and deportation of dozens of unionists, anarchists and communists. The law forbade the use of “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive” language about the U.S. government, its flag, or it military. The mainstream press supported the act, despite the significant limitations it imposed on free speech and of press freedom. In June, 1918, the government arrested Eugene Debs for violating the act by undermining the government’s conscription efforts. He served 18 months in prison. Congress repealed the act in 1920, since world War I had ended. However, Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, lobbied for a peacetime version of it. Additionally, he continued to round up labor activists, communists and anarchist for seditious behavior, particularly Wobblies, or members of the IWW. For example, they convicted Marie Equi for giving a speech at the IWW hall in Portland, Oregon after WWI had ended. Today, President Trump is attempting to bring it back with decrees forbidding criticism of the U.S. government, capitalism, traditional marriage, Israel, and even fascism, while also forbidding speech in support of transgender rights and safety.

05/02/2026

Pawn Stars...

02/27/2026
Thinking...
02/01/2026

Thinking...

It’s late on a Friday night, and we have once again responded to a comment claiming that “History is written by the victors.”

That phrase gets repeated so often it’s treated like wisdom, when it’s really a shortcut that shuts down deeper thinking.

Power may shape the first draft of history, but it does not own the truth. History is rewritten by the witnesses, reclaimed by descendants, and protected by communities who refuse to be erased.

ATALM exists because Native nations refuse to let distorted narratives stand unchallenged, and because telling history right requires sovereignty, accountability, and care.

Photo credit: This is from Nikki Mandell and Bobbie Malone’s book Thinking Like a Historian: Rethinking History Instruction, published in 2008 by Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Dr. Mandell had taught at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Bobbie Malone was the Director of School Services for the Wisconsin Historical Society.

are you kidding me?
01/27/2026

are you kidding me?

“It’s not only the erasure of history. On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the birth of this country, this is a historical outrage. This is historical blasphemy.” Michael Coard, a founding member of the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, commenting on the removal on an exhibit on slavery at ...

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