May 15 at Lincoln South Rotary - The Harvey Girls

On May 15, 2026 at Lincoln South Rotary Club we learned about "The Harvey Girls" from Dr. Sandra Mathews-Benham, Professor of History at Nebraska Wesleyan.

Dr. Sandra opened her presentation with a dedication to a Harvey Girl that she met - Maurine McMillan. It is because of Maurine that Sandra learned of the Harvey Girls and was inspired to search out their story. Maurine McMillan passed away in November 2025. Sandra shared that she did have an opportunity to meet other Harvey Girls and learned much about their opportunities and challenges.

 

The questions - Who were the Harvey Girls and did they civilize the West?

 

We were taken on a historic journey. It started with the Atkinson, Topeka and Sante Fe Railway in 1859. They reached the Colorado border in 1873 and New Mexico in 1880. By 1887 the line reached California.

 

Train travel was difficult - no clean hotels and miserable food. There are stories of food orders placed and paid for and then the train whistle would blow so they were not able to eat. The food itself was terrible.

 

Fred Harvey partnered with the Railroad to set up some restaurants along the rail line. That was fine for a while. The waiters were mostly black males. And the patrons were often cowboys. Fights regularly broke out.

 

He replaced the staff with young women - 18 to 30 years of age and unmarried. He hired women of good character, attractive and intelligent. They had to abide by a strict code of conduct. The restaurants had a reputation for cleanliness, attention to detail, uncompromising quality and friendly smiles. They went through rigorous training.

 

Life as a Harvey Girl included rules such as everything in its place, no makeup no chewing gum and no perfume. They were expected to maintain spotless uniforms. And and interesting fact was that, if a patron ordered orange juice, it had to be fresh-squeezed. That made it difficult to keep the uniform clean with all of the "splatter" from the squeezing.

 

 

It is stated that the Harvey Girls brought some civility to the West. Though the Gold Rush was over, the West was still rough. They brough some east coast culture to the west - with fine dining and proper service. With the Harvey Girls they would see more women moving to the west.

 

It has been stated that the Harvey Girls is probably one of the first corporate workforces made up entirely of women. It provided life changing experience for women including these benefits and aspects:

Yes. The Harvey Girls are widely credited with helping to civilize the Wild West. By bringing clean food, strict moral standards, and refined hospitality to rough and chaotic frontier railroad towns, they transformed the social fabric of the American frontier

 

We learned that some of the Harvey restaurants and hotels still stand - and some have been renovated and are being used today.

 

 

BIO

 

Education
Ph.D.: U.S. West and Latin American History, University of New Mexico, 1998
M.A.: Latin American Studies (History and Political Science), University of New Mexico, 1988

 

Professional and community affiliations, certifications and awards  [Recent only]
Dr. Margaret J. Prouty Faculty Teaching Award, 2024 
Ameritas Faculty Fellowship, 2024-2025 (and four other times)
John Topham and Susan Redd Butler Off-Campus Faculty Research Award (Brigham Young University), 2021-2022, 2017-2018, and 2010-2011 
Nebraska Wesleyan Advisor of the Year Award, 2016
Nebraska Wesleyan Scholar Award, 2015-2016
Scholar Award, 2010-2011, New Mexico State Historian/Historical Society of New Mexico
Student Organization Advisor of the Year, 2009

 

When Not Teaching:
I love to triathlon (swim, bike, run), gravel cycle, travel, visit family, camp, hike/walk, kayak, photograph, research and write, golf, carve, draw--anything outside.