By Bert Gambini

Read the full article from the UB News Center here.

“Foster’s book tells a story absent from other histories about how the expanding railroad industry of the 19th century and the emergence of luxury sleeping cars required employees to staff them. The sleeping cars were rolling full-service accommodations that allowed riders to stay on the train rather than in a hotel during stopovers. The passengers, unwilling to learn the porters’ names, called anyone working in that capacity “George.””