Those Harvey Girls
It wasn’t just the excellent food that attracted people to the Harvey House Restaurants. Fred Harvey hired a wholesome group of young, attractive, intelligent, women between the ages of 18 and 30 to leave their eastern homes and come West to work as Harvey Girls. For a young woman hoping to escape the hometown doldrums or one with visions of romance and marriage, the job was a dream come true.
Who Were the Harvey Girls — And Why Do They Matter?
The Harvey Girls Defined Hospitality in the Wild West of the 1880s. More specifically, they were young, single, intelligent women who were also of “good character,” and, presumably, had the sort of sense of adventure that propelled them to unknown territory in the 1880s to work as waitresses.
The Harvey Girls
Early 1870’s Englishman-traveler Fred Harvey approached Santa Fe with a plan to establish good eating establishments along the railroad from Kansas to California. Since Food services was one of the most serious problems for railroads and the Santa Fe officials were eager to listen to his proposal. They agreed to supply the buildings, transport food, furnishings, and employees free of charge.
Marking NM’s Historic Women: Harvey Girls & Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter
In 1883, the Fred Harvey Company hired women to serve in its diners and hotels along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Thousands of respectable, intelligent women were recruited from the Midwest and East Coast to come west. Known as Harvey Girls, many of these women stayed and became founding members of their adopted communities, forever changing the cultural landscape of the Wild West.