2015 WHS Annual Meeting

The Winslow Historical Society hosted its 2015 Annual Meeting on Saturday, November 7, for 45 attendees at the Winslow Visitors Center/Hubbell Trading Post.

The free event began at 2 pm with a reception and performance by Arizona Blues Hall of Fame inductee Tommy Dukes (at left with David Chavez Sr. and their first guitars in 1957). The WHS Annual Meeting began at about 2:45 and include the election of new board members and brief reports on museum activities over the past year.

While there, attendees were able to join or renew their memberships for 2016; buy the museum’s 2016 historical calendar, Railroad Town: The Santa Fe Railway in Winslow; and take a ticket for a chance to win a terrific door prize donated by OTM, the Winslow Public Library, the Winslow Arts Trust, and several current board members.

Thank you for joining us for the Winslow Historical Society’s annual celebration of our membership, which is a reflection of the Old Trails Museum’s community support and the backbone of our grassroots fundraising efforts. With you, we have a future; without you, we’re history!

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2016 Historical Calendar

The Old Trails Museum’s 2016 historical calendar, Railroad Town: The Santa Fe Railway in Winslow, is now available for $10 at the museum, the Arizona 66 Trading Company, La Posada Hotel,  On the Corner Gifts, the Scoop, the Winslow Chamber of Commerce,  and Winslow Dental.

This 2016 edition serves as a companion to OTM’s new permanent exhibit, The Story of Winslow, which debuted on the museum floor in August 2015. The exhibit text panels are spread throughout the museum and tell the overall history of the town alongside images and artifacts donated by decades of museum supporters.

In this calendar, excerpts from the railroad-related panels are paired with images that have never before been published in an OTM book, exhibit, or calendar. Additional text was adapted from Winslow, the museum’s Images of America title. Sources for additional Santa Fe Railway history included documents from the museum’s archival collections; articles from the Winslow Mail; and the BNSF brochure, History and Legacy: The History of BNSF: A Legacy for the 21st Century.

OTM Director Ann-Mary Lutzick developed the calendar, and the Print Raven of Flagstaff did the graphic design and printing. Thanks to Helen Jane Pollard for loaning her wonderful photos; otherwise, all images are from the Old Trails Museum Collection.

The calendar is once again a fundraiser for the museum thanks to our generous advertisers: Arizona 66 Trading Company, Bojos Grill & Sports Club, Casey’s Hardware, Cross U Management Company, Dominique’s On the Corner, Joe’s Glass and Locksmith Shop, La Posada Hotel, the Leavitt Group, Mojo Coffee Company, Robert & Clint Cox Automotive Service, The Scoop Advertising, Snowdrift Art Space, and the Winslow Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center.

Still priced at $10, the calendar makes a great holiday gift! OTM will be open through Christmas Eve from 10 am to 3 pm every day (except Sundays and Mondays). Your OTM Store purchases are sales-tax-free, support the museum, and keep your shopping dollars local!

 

 

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2015 Fall History Highlight: Fred Harvey in the Southwest

The Old Trails Museum offered its Fall History Highlight to 25 attendees on Saturday, October 31 at La Posada Hotel with the free presentation of Fred Harvey: Branding the Southwest. (Image of the Desert View Watchtower courtesy of NAU Cline Library.)

Archivist Sean Evans from Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library presented this visual walk through the history of the Fred Harvey company in the Southwest from the 1890s through its ownership by the Amfac corporation from 1968 to 1988. Evans’ presentation also served as a preview of the Cline’s exhibit of the same name, on display now through August 1, 2016.

The Winslow Harvey Girls also had their popular Harvey House Trunk Show on display before the presentation. This dedicated group of volunteers is committed to preserving the history of Fred Harvey, the Harvey Girls, and La Posada Hotel. Their trunk show features original china used in the dining cars and Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe line.

Evans has been an archivist at Special Collections and Archives at NAU’s Cline Library since 1981. He holds a Masters in History from NAU and a Masters in Information Research and Library Science from the University of Arizona. In addition to the Fred Harvey exhibit, Evans has curated two others for the Cline Library: Route 66 in Arizona: Don’t Forget Winona in 2009 and The Flagstaff All-Indian Powwow in 2012.

Starting in 1876, Englishman and entrepreneur Fred Harvey opened a series of “Harvey Houses” in cooperation with the Santa Fe Railway that were considered America’s first restaurant chain. After Fred’s death in 1901, son Ford Harvey developed the company’s focus on destination tourism to the Southwest. Both the Branding the Southwest presentation and exhibit will explore the company’s evolution, from small clapboard cafes to elegant rail-side hotels, through the lens of the Cline Library’s Fred Harvey Company Collection.

The Cline’s collection illustrates the company’s influence on the development of dining and tourism in the Southwest through material on the Harvey Girls, the Fred Harvey Indian Department, and Grand Canyon operations. Documents include menus, brochures, guest registers, press releases, architectural drawings, art work, and over 5,000 photographs of Fred Harvey concerns at the Grand Canyon and elsewhere.

The 2015 Fall History Highlight was scheduled to coincide with the Branding the Southwest exhibit run as well as with a special panel discussion and open house at the Cline on November 4. Through a special partnership, the Old Trails Museum has loaned several items from our Fred Harvey Collections to the Cline exhibit, including china, glassware, and textiles.  Some of those loaned items have just recently come full circle.

In 1985, Allen and Carol Naille donated their Fred Harvey collection to NAU’s Cline Library. Allen Naille was president of the Fred Harvey Corporation at the Grand Canyon during the transition from the Harvey family to Amfac Inc. In 1996, the Cline donated the three-dimensional objects from the Naille Collection to the Museum of Northern Arizona, which generously donated a portion of that collection to the Old Trails Museum this past August.

The 2015 Fall History Highlight was a partnership program between the Old Trails Museum and the Winslow Arts Trust. For the latest updates on all of the Old Trails Museum’s exhibits and programs, subscribe to our “News” feed or “like” the museum on Facebook.

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