The Harvey Girls

For some random reason I recently felt inclined to pick up a history book. I mostly read fiction, about fiction, about the authors that write the fiction, and Christian books. There have been one or two times that I have delved into a history book, but came up gasping for water and unable to motivate myself to continue. This time, however, I was pleasantly surprised.

I vaguely knew of the Harvey Girls by watching "The Harvey Girls" with Judy Garland and when I saw that there was a book titled The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West I thought, "Why not give it a try?"

The author, Lesly Poling-Kempes interviewed lots of Harvey Girls, their family,other staff at Fred Harvey restaurants and hotels, along with empolyees of the Santa Fe railroad. It's incredibly well researched and although slightly repetitive I kept wanting to read more. Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad come hand in hand, so it starts off with a history of the railroad itself and how it made it's way out West and down South. It's surprisingly exciting! There was spying and guns and downright skirmishes involved. Then it goes into how Fred Harvey got hooked up with the railroads and how he changed the face of traveling and tourism to the West. To cut this description short it touches on the difficulties Harvey Girls faced both in rough frontiers and in the attitudes toward working, unmarried women who wanted to travel. It also tells about the decline of the Harvey system and how slowly but surely most of the restaurants and hotels had to shut down. (I'll give you a hint: most branches survived the Depression, but WWII hit them pretty hard.)

In conclusion, the book covers in interesting piece of American history that I've never encountered, I now am more interested in visiting New Mexico and Arizona, and it didn't really prove that the Harvey Girls were women who opened the West. (But it does make for a nice tagline.) It was mildly interesting, informative, and a pleasant read. I particularly enjoyed all the personal accounts given by the Harvey employees themselves.

Oh, and it includes pictures!