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Fred Harvey Company collection, 1881-2005

MS-301

Biographical Note

Frederick Henry Harvey (June 27, 1835 - February 9, 1901) was born in London to mixed Scottish and English parents. He immigrated to the United States in 1850 and began working as a busboy. His early experience in the world of food service would have a big impact on him. Harvey moved around from New York to New Orleans to St. Louis where he met his wife, Barbara Sarah Mattas, with whom he would have six children.

After doing various jobs, Harvey returned to the food industry and started a profitable café with a business partner. When the Civil War began Harvey’s partner took all of their savings and joined the Confederacy. In return, Harvey began working for the railroad and rose to prominence. He relocated to Leavenworth, Kansas, which would remain his home for the rest of his life. His frequent rail travel made Harvey aware of the poor quality of railroad cuisine.

In 1876, Harvey and Charles Morse, the superintendant of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, made a deal that allowed Harvey to open restaurants along the railroad rent-free. This handshake deal is considered one of the most profitable partnerships in the early American West because at the height of its popularity, the Fred Harvey Company operated 84 Harvey House restaurants and changed the way railways and restaurants served their patrons.

Harvey is credited with creating the first chain restaurants in the United States and is considered a forerunner of tourism in the Southwest. His restaurants and hotels were known for their quality consistency in everything from the food to the waitresses who became known as Harvey Girls. They had regulation form-fitting uniforms and were chosen for their looks and civility. They were made even more famous when, in 1946, a musical was made about them starring Judy Garland.

After his death in 1901, Harvey’s sons, Ford and Byron (and later Byron Jr.), took over the family business. They did not let the company decline with rail travel but began marketing new services such as Harvey Cars, which would take tourists from their hotels on "Indian Detours" that were meant to provide visitors with an authentic Native American experience. Harvey and his sons were considered marketing geniuses. They would stage ritual dances and hire attractive women as tour guides. They also became prolific postcard publishers, which Harvey believed was the best way to promote their restaurants and hotels. They hired a number of noted architects, including Mary Jane Colter, to design buildings for the company that reflected their natural settings and the Native American architecture of the area. Some of Colter’s accomplishments include the Bright Angel Lodge, Desert View Watchtower, Phantom Ranch, Hopi House, Hermit's Rest, and Lookout Studio at the Grand Canyon, as well as LaFonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico and La Posada in Winslow, Arizona.

Karl “Carl” Moon (1879-1948) was born in Ohio and moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico about 1903 after learning the art of photography. His delicately posed photographs of Southwestern Native Americans, for which he is well-known, appeared in magazines and exhibitions around the country. In 1907, Moon began a long involvement with the Fred Harvey Company, for which he served as director of art. Subseries 3.2 contains some of his original negatives and prints. Moon later moved to Pasadena, California and remained there for the rest of his life, writing and publishing. At the beginning of World War I the rise of anti-German sentiments compelled Moon to change the spelling of his first name, substituting a “Carl” for his given name “Karl.”

ord Harvey’s daughter, Katherine Medary Harvey (1892-1962), was a great philanthropist and Native American art collector [see MS-34]. After her father and brother died tragically in the 1920s and ‘30s, she would have taken over the Fred Harvey Company if she were not a woman. Instead, her uncle, Byron Jr., took charge and she eventually sold all of her shares in the company.

Byron Jr.’s son, Byron Harvey III (1932-2005), was inspired as a teenager by his Aunt Katherine and Hopi culture and religion. He went on to become a noted anthropologist and authority on Indian tribes of the Southwest as well as a major collector, patron, and donor of Native American and African art.

In 1968, The Fred Harvey Company was sold to the Hawaii-based Amfac Corporation. Records, photographs, and other Fred Harvey Company materials held by the company for nearly a century were distributed to university libraries, museums, and archives throughout the Southwest. The Fred Harvey Trading Company was set up as the retail division of Amfac Parks & Resorts. In 2002, Amfac changed their name to Xanterra Parks & Resorts and continues to operate many of the original Harvey hotels.

Scope and Content

This collection contains records and media pertaining to the Fred Harvey Company as well as certain members of the Harvey family. Included are inventories, appraisals, correspondence, and photographs regarding various Native American arts and crafts collections donated to museums by the Harvey family. As well as photographic images (prints, safety negatives, nitrate negatives, lantern slides, and postcards) taken for the Fred Harvey Company for advertisements and souvenir prints and postcards. Subject matter ranges from Fred Harvey Company operations at the Grand Canyon including various hotels, visiting groups and dignitaries, performers, Native Americans, wildlife, and landscapes. Some of the famous individuals appearing in the images are: Jesse Owens, W.W. Bass, Edgar and Candace Bergen, the King and Queen of Greece (Paul and Fredericka), Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi (Shah of Iran), Olav V (Crown Prince of Norway), and the San Francisco Pirate Girl.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Conditions Governing Access

The collection contains some culturally sensitive materials, which are restricted. Please contact the archivist for information about obtaining permission to view these materials.

Conditions Governing Use

Unpublished and published manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Related Material

Harvey Family and Fred Harvey Company records can be found at the following repositories:

The Katherine M. Harvey materials at the Museum of Northern Arizona are cited in:

Controlled Access Terms

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Fred Harvey Company collection, MS-301 [Box Number]. Museum of Northern Arizona. Flagstaff, Arizona.

Acquisition Information

The various accruals were donated to the museum by Byron Harvey III in 1963 and 1967. Some items, such as the Fred Harvey Indian Collection inventory (MS-30) were commissioned by the museum and donated by the former director, Edward Danson.

Processing Information

Processed in September of 2010.

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