The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West by Lesley Poling-Kempes (review)

222 Canadian Review of American Studies Lesley Poling-Kempes. The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West. New York: Paragon House, 1989. Pp. xviii + 252, bibliography and illustrations. Giventhe limited employment opportunities available to young, singlewomen in the East and Midwest during the late nineteenth century. it is not remarkable that the more energetic, ambitious, and adventuresome women were lured to the southwestern territories of the United States by advertisements for waitresses placed by the Fed Harvey chain of restaurants and hotels. Over the span of the next eighty years, nearly one hundred thousand women who needed to support themselves or who felt it essential to contribute financially to their family exchanged the security of their immediate community for the paternalistic Harvey system that was symbiotically tied to. the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. As contracted women, Harvey Girls worked long hours at mundane waitressing tasks, allthe while conforming to the impeccable standards set by their employer. Yet, rewards were many. The Harvey business was respected, the pay was sufficient, and the housing provided was clean and comfortable. Less tangible were opportunities permitting the women to better their economic and social position while experiencing the raw southwestern frontier. Poling-Kempes'sstudy rests on the assumption that Harvey Girls were women challenged by personality and necessity to "expand their knowledge of themselves and the world they were a part of through the experience" (xi). Conceding that most were unimportant people who lead common lives, the author firmly places herself in the camp of new social historians, stating that appreciation of the affairs of ordinary forbearers enhances examination of our own lives. However valid the premise, the author fails to marshall her materials in such a manner as to allow insightful examination. The most troubling aspect of this work is one of focus; the story of the Harvey Girls simply gets lost. In fact, the women are not mentioned in the volume until page 28, following a detailed description of the construction of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and an equally long account of the beginnings of the Fred Harveychain-both ofwhich are based exclusivelyon secondary accounts. Even after introduction of the title subject matter, there are lengthy interspersed passages pertaining to such superfluous topics as the decor of Harvey hotels or the design of aprons that the women wore. To be sure, these pages are presented in a vividly entertaining manner, and they are buttressed with appropriate photographs, but they do not better the knowledge of the Harvey Girls. To document her work, the author searched contemporary newspapers and conducted seventy-seven oral and written interviews, most of which, unfortunately, relate to women who worked as Harvey Girls during the waning days of the hotel/ BookReviews 223 restaurant chain. The work cries out for primary sources relating to the pioneering experiencesof the early waitresses. That omission is glaring, especially as the author payshomage to scholars who quite properly demand that written history of the frontier West be expanded to include women and native tribes. As presented, this work contributes little to political, economic, or social revisions challenging traditionally male-dominated frontier literature. There is yet another flaw that should be noted. That is the author's failure to document internally her sources. Long, italicized passages casually attributed to specificindividuals are included without benefit of citation. It would seem apparent thatthe quotations somehow relate to Appendix A entitled "Primary Sources"; however ,detecting which of the seventy-seven persons listed might be properly coupled witha particular passage is a bother, if not a burden, for the serious scholar. Poling-Kempes's volume does have some redeeming features. The writing styleis refreshingly lively, clanging along with a rhythm that matches the sound of the rails. In addition, the author seemingly has brought together all that is know about the Harvey Girls. And, they do emerge as women appreciative of the opportunityto work for the Fred Harvey enterprise. Certainly, the women quoted gained self-esteem and a sense of professionalism from their employment, and, most assuredly,they have been rescued from the image projected of them in the Hollywoodmusical of the same name that starred Judy Garland. MerleKunz CentralWashington University ++++++ RogerMorris. Richard...