“Necessary Guidance:” the Fred Harvey Company Presents The
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“Necessary Guidance:” The Fred Harvey Company Presents the Southwest A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Marisa Kay Brandt IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Sara M. Evans, Advisor May 2011 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 UMI 3457046 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC. UMI Number: 3457046 Copyright © 2011 Marisa Kay Brandt All Rights Reserved i Acknowledgements This work would not have been possible without the support and help of many people. My committee – David Chang, Helen Longino, Kevin Murphy, and Lisa Norling – and Sara Evans, my advisor, all provided invaluable insights that helped refine my understanding of my topic and arguments. Lisa Norling, in particular, suggested that I think more about the gendered implications of “hostessing,” which began a process that reframed my dissertation. This thesis would be far less interesting and readable without Sara Evans’s patient editorial guidance. The history program at the University of Minnesota was unflaggingly supportive throughout my tenure in graduate school; I could not have completed this project without the warm community I found there. My writing group – Nicole Phelps, Susan Graham, Nikki Berg Burin, and Seulky McInneshin – helped me with the conference papers which grew into this dissertation. My friends Ellen Arnold, Tina Scott, and Heather Kussatz talked me down when I despaired of finishing. Frankie Johnson welcomed me into her home and introduced me to the community of Harper, Kansas. Her faith in this project has been wonderful, and at times stronger than my own. ii The librarians at the University of Minnesota (where I began my research) and at the Seattle Public Library (where I finished it) could not have been more gracious and helpful; I particularly owe a debt to the interlibrary loan departments of both those institutions. The archivists at Northern Arizona University, the University of Arizona, and the Leavenworth County Historical Society cheerfully helped me with my research. The Kansas State Historical Society not only provided archival access to valuable railroad materials but also provided generous financial support that funded my work in that state. I also could not have finished without my family’s loving support. I am especially grateful to my husband, Victor Thompson, who always believed that this project was worthwhile, and that my writing would do it justice. Sucker Punch Productions granted me office space that gave me a “room of my own” so that I could finish writing, a luxury I didn’t know I needed until it was generously offered. Finally, I want to thank my interviewees. I wish I could have included all their stories here. Their descriptions were rich with detail, and they have stayed with me even as the project itself shifted direction. To all of you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. iii Abstract Founded by Frederick Henry Harvey in 1876, the Fred Harvey Company was a family-run hotel chain located along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad’s tracks. The development of the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railroad reveals linkages between changes in transportation and the development of a consumer culture based on advertising. Harvey established pleasant dining houses for travelers on the Santa Fe while allowing the railroad to promote the Harvey Company’s offerings. Under his son, Ford Harvey, the company built its tourist business gradually. Ford Harvey asserted more control over the business’s growth than his father had, working with his sister Minnie Harvey Huckel and her husband John Huckel to create interesting destinations to draw visitors to the Southwest. They built this expansion on the company’s historic strengths – good food in comfortable (and comforting) surroundings – but also embarked on a project to explain the region in a way that was itself comfortable to potential tourists. They put their efforts before a larger audience at California’s fairs, miniaturizing the Southwest to make it even more accessible and interesting to fair-goers. Finally, they brought together the elements that they had implicitly been selling and began to provide an experience of tourism that was hostessed from beginning to end. The Harvey Company created a sense of comfort through its food, advertising, and staging in order to provide a commodified presentation of the Southwest to white tourists. Using promotional materials, constructed environments, and carefully-selected staff members, the Harvey Company made the Southwest more accessible (both literally and figuratively), comfortable, and interesting. I identify this kind of presentation as “hostessing.” Ultimately, the Harvey Company itself would use the word “hostessing” to describe what its employees were doing in the Southwest, but I assert that it was engaged in this activity from the beginning. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. i Abstract .............................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents .............................................................................................. iv Chapter One: “A Combination of Hostess and Guide” ..................................... 1 Chapter Two: Growth Years and Growing Comfort ....................................... 19 Fred Harvey: A “Benevolent Despot” .......................................................... 24 Depot Lunchrooms and Finer Dining on the Santa Fe ................................. 30 “Everything Had to Be Just Right” .............................................................. 39 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 44 Chapter Three: “Awakening an Interest:” Business in an Era of Commercialization ........................................................................................... 49 Advertising “Finds” the Southwest .............................................................. 51 An Era of Turmoil and Changes ................................................................... 64 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 78 Chapter Four: “More than a hotel:” Resort-Building in the Southwest .......... 82 “The Beautiful Alvarado Hotel” ................................................................... 85 The Arts and Crafts Movement and the Fred Harvey Indian Art Department ...................................................................................................................... 97 v The Harvey Company’s Grand Canyon: “A Village Devoted to the Entertainment of Travelers” ....................................................................... 105 Selling the Southwest ................................................................................. 112 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 117 Chapter Five: Hostessing America in the Southwest .................................... 120 The “Life of a Vanishing Race” at San Francisco’s Fair ........................... 123 “Handling the matter:” Harvey/Santa Fe Logistics at the Fairs ................. 143 “Dude-Wrangling” Tourists in the Southwest............................................ 148 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 166 Chapter Six: “This Entrancing Picture in a Desert” ...................................... 169 The Harvey Company in Decline ............................................................... 170 “Harvey Girls” and American Popular Culture .......................................... 183 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 190 Future Work ................................................................................................ 194 Epilogue .......................................................................................................... 195 Bibliography ................................................................................................... 205 1 Chapter One: “A Combination of Hostess and Guide” “The comparative primitiveness of the Southwest... makes it necessary to provide guidance, and the feminine contingent of careers soon developed furnishing a combination of hostess and guide to the uninitiated.” – Beatrice Chauvenet, Harvey Company “Courier,” 19321 When Beatrice Chavenet wrote about the role of a “Courier” in 1932, she was looking back on her short career as a southwestern tour guide for the Harvey Company. Her comments reflected both her own feelings and the business’s perspective. By the time she became a Courier in the late 1920s, the Harvey Company had several decades of experience building its success on visitors’ desires to visit an unfamiliar place made