In earlier postcard stories we touched upon the dramatic career of Fred Harvey who began his career as a restaurant worker in New York and seized the opportunity of railroad expansion to become the head of a hotel and restaurant empire:
“Taking the Train to Fisher’s Peak”, “The Waitress Has an Admirer”, “A Home for Kit Carson”, “We’ll Be at Pike’s Peak Tomorrow”,” Althea Has a New Postcard Friend”
The prominence of the Fred Harvey businesses and the legendary level of service became a part of popular culture – the influence of Fred Harvey expanding even after his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Harvey_(entrepreneur)
Harvey’s practice of hiring young, attractive waitresses who were well-trained to provide excellent service and to rebuff the unwelcome attentions of travelers was featured in “Harvey Girls” – the 1946 musical comedy produced by MGM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Harvey_Girls
To promote travel for pleasure, and to publicize their businesses, the Fred Harvey resorts published hundreds of postcards that highlighted natural wonders, historical monuments, or other nearby points of interest.
Sometime in the late 1930’s, this postcard was printed to draw attention to the survival of ancient Pueblo culture in Arizona.
To contemporary readers, the blurb on the reverse hints at condescension and the assumed cultural superiority of mainstream America.
https://blog.nativehope.org/pueblo-native-americans-their-history-culture-and-traditions
But the drawing on the face, of a child learning to ride a burro, strikes a pleasant tone of universal understanding and experience.
Here, a woman in traditional Pueblo garb is supporting the child who sits stiffly on the back of the patient burro.
The child’s feet do not reach anywhere near the stirrups which dangle beneath the burro.
The postcard was copyrighted an published by Fred Harvey.
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The postcard was not mailed, and there is no personal story attached to it.
Today, it is not difficult to find Fred Harvey postcards that were sent through the mail, but there is an even larger number that were collected for the quality of the printing and the variety of scenes that were shared,
I assume that some postcard collector preserved this postcard as an expression of interest in Indigenous culture, the wonders of Arizona, childhood, riding, or in hope of making a future trip.
