Setting the Standard 1: The Harvey Girls - New Recruits

Beginning in the 1880’s women from across the United States joined the workforce at Fred Harvey establishments along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) railroad. The ATSF was one of the larger railroads in the U.S. reaching the Kansas-Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado in 1876. To create a demand for services, the railroad set up real estate offices and sold farmland obtained from land grants awarded by Congress. By the 1930’s, the Fred Harvey Company began to hire local women from the towns in which their establishments operated including Hispano and Native American women in positions initially only staffed by Anglo women.
One of a series of six excerpts from the film "The Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound" by Katrina Parks that are part of the exhibit Setting the Standard, The Fred Harvey Company and its Legacy, on view at the New Mexico History Museum through 2024. This video features excerpts from the documentary film, The Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound.
www.harveygirlsdocumentary.com

[@kabbey30]

My grandma, Bertha Yingling was a Harvey Girl in New Mexico.

[@palabrajot505]

The details of Hilda Velarde-Salas' experience with gringo tourists is interesting, mainly because at least half of the tourists I come across in Santa Fe haven't evolved beyond the type of individuals she described. Despite 111 years of statehood, despite geography being taught in schools, despite a couple of major WWII events being tied to New Mexico, despite 25 years of the internet enabling people to educate themselves for free and despite the global popularity of Breaking Bad... A good deal of these schmendricks (often from the Midwest), ask the same dumbass questions.

[@philipanderson4673]

Hatin' on the gringos much?....