Elmer Hammonds outside with dog, February 1966

Photograph of Elmer Hammonds, Sr., posing outside with his dog. Elmer Johnson Hammonds, Sr. (1903-1987) grew up in Bardstown, Kentucky, and moved to Louisville in the early 1930s. In 1931, he married Ophelia Doyle Guinn (1899-1964). The couple raised three children on West Chestnut Street. Elmer worked as a Pullman Porter for over 39 years, from 1929 to 1968. During the heyday of railroad travel, the Pullman Porters attended to the needs of train passengers. In the beginning, the Pullman Company hired only Black men for the job of porter.

Morton-Hammonds Family Photographs, The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky