The first railroad sleeping cars appeared in America in the late 1830s. They were used between Baltimore and Philadelphia and provided berths for two dozen passengers. In 1856 Theodore T. Woodruff, a master car builder with the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad, patented a railroad car with three tiers: the lowest was made by moving seat bottoms together, the middle by folding up the backs of seats, and the top by lowering panels attached above the windows. These cars were quite popular until George Pullman (1831-1897) introduced his brand of railroad cars in 1865.

Pullman was born March 3, 1831, and grew up in Brocton, New York, but moved to Chicago in 1855. In 1858, Pullman arranged with the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company to remodel two of their boxcar-like coaches. The first few experiments were not successful, but in 1861 he designed a model called the Pioneer.

Pullman improved upon Woodruff's earlier...