Any collector of vintage postcards is likely to find numerous examples of lovely linen postcards printed by Fred Harvey Restaurants.

What Howard Johnson’s restaurants were to the turnpikes of the late 1950’s and 1960’s, Fred Harvey Restaurants were to the golden age of railroads.

Fred Harvey was born in England, emigrated to the US at age 17, and became a station agent for the Burlington Railroad.

An enterprising soul, Harvey became convinced of the business potential in serving food to railroad passengers.

The railroad companies were not interested in the venture, so Harvey launched his own cafes in 1876, and soon became the leading purveyor of food in the West.

His dining rooms were elegant (there is an entire literature on the ways Harvey Houses “civilized” the Wild West), the portions generous, and the service impeccable.

(Fred Harvey was known to overturn a cafe table that was not set properly with linens and silver.)

He was a good employer, paying good wages and protecting the “Harvey Girls” who came from all parts of the US to work in the Harvey Houses.

This linen postcard features one of the homes of Kit Carson, born in Kentucky in 1808, who hunted and trapped all over the American West and guided government surveyors of the American Southwest.

The Harvey Houses promoted travel to local points of interest such as this.