The Harvey Girl was a very special kind of waitress and she has been given credit for helping to civilize the west. In the early days there was no dining cars on trains. The cafes that sprang up along the stops were very inadequate and the time too brief for passengers to have a decent meal. Fred Harvey, who was chief agent at Levenworth, Kansas resolved to make mealtime a pleasant occurrence. The Santa Fe accepted his proposal and a Harvey House sprang up at every major Sante Fe station. Harvey drew up rigid qualifications that each Harvey Girl had to meet. He advertised in newspapers all over the east and Midwest for "Girls of High Caliber, attractive, intelligent, and between the ages of 18 and 30." A girl who was hired spent six weeks in intensive training in social skills, in poise, and in culinary niceties.
The Harvey Girl's workplace was an elegant dining room. Spotless tablecloths and fine china were on the tables, where only the freshest food was served (brought daily by railroad). When the train was about a mile from the depot, the engineer blew the train whistle. This was a signal for the first course to be put on the table. Sixteen people were to be served in 25 minutes.
I thought the history of the Harvey House was interesting as Jim said he and his family stopped at them when they used to travel from Cleveland, Ohio to Los Angeles, CA on their vacations when he was growing up.
The museum is laid out with each room dedicated to a special theme. The "Doll Room" hosts hundreds of dolls of all types. Check out some pictures:
 |
| Shirley Temple Dolls |
The Shirley Temple Doll, designed for The Ideal Toy Corporation. They were made from 1934 through 1940. The dolls were promoted each time Shirley's 31 films were released. Dolls were also issued for Shirley's special events, like her 6th birthday doll in 1935.
 |
| Marionettes |
 |
| Music Boxes |
 |
| Music Boxes |
The next room in the museum was the Mimbres Pottery Room. Mimbres Pottery was made between 1000 and 1300 AD.
 |
| Pit House |
This depiction shows how the Indians would have lived in this type of structure. Their homes were dug down into the ground and then framed with poles layered with grass for the roof, and rocks lined the sides. The hole in the roof allowed smoke from the fire to escape.
They had a Lace & Quilt Room with beautiful quilts and a wall full of lace, hand made. I found the story of Lace and its origins is really fascinating, and am sharing portions of it below.
The word "lace" comes from the Latin word "Laques" meaning noose - so lace is a lot of holes outlined by thread. Origin of lace is older than written records. A cap was found in a bog grave in Denmark has been dated at 3000 BC. First true laces were worked with needle and thread in the 1500's in Italy, France and Spain. Needlepoint lace is made with needle and thread using the buttonhole stitch over a parchment base which is later removed. A new type of lace started being made using a pillow and bobbins. Bobbins serve as spools to hold the thread and as weights to keep tension on the work.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, skilled lacemakers sometimes used 1,000 bobbins to make a piece of wide lace. The thread was so fine it could be seen only by magnifying glass and so delicate that it was necessary to work in dark damp cellars. Often lacemakers died of consumption or were blind by age thirty. Women could not keep up with orders so boys and men joined the workforce.
Royalty valued lace as well. Charles I, Charles II, Henry II all wore lace - on their cuffs, collars and bedclothes. Henry II valued his lace collection so much that he washed and ironed it himself. Henry VIII would not allow anyone less than a Knight to wear lace.
Thieves stole lace in preference to jewels, which continued through the 18th century. Customs officers had permission to search private homes and tailor shops and burn any lace found. Ingenious ways were used to smuggle - corpses were often wrapped in lace shrouds and shipped to England.
The colonists brought lacemaking skills to America. In 1790 Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, reported that more than 600 women and children were employed as lacemakers, most of them in Ipswich, Mass. That same year 41,979 yards of bobbin lace were shipped out of the state.
Lace went into a decline by 1920, but came back into its own again by 1970. In 1954 four women started the International Old Lacers which now has over 2,000 members.
There was also a section dedicated to people from Czechoslovakia, which we thought quite interesting.
 |
| Meteorite |
This is a genuine meteorite. It is 4.5 million years old. It is made of iron-nickle and fell in Campo Del Cielo in Argentina about 4,000 to 6,000 years ago. It was acquired from William Anderson by the Geode Kid.
 |
| Mammoth Tooth |
This is a Wooly or Imperial Mammoth tooth. It was found near Deming.
The next room we found quite interesting housed hundreds of liquor bottles. There was even a chess set using liquor bottles.
 |
| Half of a Chess Set |
There was also a room devoted to rocks and geodes. The outside of the rock is unassuming - no one would even guess what would be inside them. There were hundreds of these types of rocks, some tiny and some huge.
 |
| Inside the rock |
 |
| 1909 Model T Ford |
It was the fire chief's car in town of Mogollon, New Mexico. When new this vehicle sold for approximately $850. This was the very beginning of the automotive era. For the first time motorized transport was within the means of John Q. Public.
No comments:
Post a Comment