Fred Harvey Photographic Collection

The Fred Harvey Collection is one collection that is part of the Cline Library and Special Collections and Archives Department's Image Database at Northern Arizona University. The Special Collections and Archives houses "significant photographs, manuscripts, oral histories, and motion picture footage documenting the natural and cultural features of Northern Arizona and the Colorado Plateau."

Collection Principles

This collection includes over 5,000 color and black-and-white images photographed by and for the Fred Harvey Company, however only 45 items have been digitized and published on the Web. Fred Harvey was famous for his "Harvey Houses", hotels, restaurants, and newsstands. He was perhaps most famous for his development of the "Harvey Girls," the hostesses and waitresses who were employed at his establishments along along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe trainlines through the Midwest and Southwest United States. The collection includes training manuals that demonstrate the strict guidelines for personal and professional behaior that the women were expected to follow. Many of his most famous hotels are in the Southwest and include the El Tovar and Hopi House at the Grand Canyon. This online collection is associated with the Fred Harvey Manuscript Collection and is not intended to be a currated exhibit, but more of a digital library.

Object Characteristics

Each item is given a local call number with associated metadata. This online collection doesn't include every item in the collection, and there is no information provided that explains why certain items were published over others. Most of the items are black and white photographs, but there are two multi-page published pamphlets included. The user is able to navigate relatively easily between the pamphlet's pages and can select different views and layouts. There is also an architectural drawing by the famous architect, Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter (who designed many of Harvey's lodges) that uses EyeSpy Launch Pad to interact with the digital object.

Metadata

The associated metadata is descriptive and uses controlled vocabulary for subject access. The metadata for many images is minimal, however, and only provides the most basic descriptive information. Certain images have extended metadata, including a brief narrative on content and biography/history of the item. A "terms of use" statement is provided with each image. There is often a link to the online Finding Aid (though for some reason, not always) included which provides some item provenance.

Audience

More than likely, this site and the items included would be of interest to scholars of the American West, Culinary History, Business History, Women's History, Train and Transportation History, Social History, Architectural Studies, and Native American History.