Journal Notes

Enter now to win a copy of Iron Women:  The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad

While attending college in Pennsylvania, Mary Lawser was part of a group comprised of several accomplished female artists.  They were known as the Philadelphia Ten.

Among the members was a talented painter and sculptor named Mary Louise Lawser.  Like Mary Colter, Mary Lawser was hired by a major rail line company to help promote westward travel.

Born in 1906 in Pennsylvania, she exhibited at a young age.  She attended the Pennsylvania Museum School, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.  Mary’s work was exhibited in galleries in Europe and New York.  She was recognized by her peers as a gifted, bronze work artist.  After graduation she took a position as an art instructor at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and at Bryn Mawr.

In early 1940, she was hired to work for notable architect Paul Cret.  The French-born, Philadelphia architect and industrial designer was impressed with Mary’s design and execution of bronze tablets found inside Alexander Hamilton’s home, The Grange.  Commissioned by the American and Historic Preservation Society, the tablets were made to honor Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the United States treasury.  In addition to designing buildings on the University of Texas campus and the Pan American Union Building in Washington, D.C., Paul Cret designed railroad cars for the Burlington and Santa Fe rail lines.  While Mary was employed by Cret, she contributed to decorating various railroad passenger cars with sculptures, wood carving, and mixed metal creations.

When Cret passed away in 1945, Mary was hired by another respected Pennsylvania architect, John Harbeson, to aid him in creating a new look for Burlington’s Pioneer Zephyr.  Although in the employ of Harbeson, Mary was singled out by the Budd Company, a railroad industry manufacturer, to design murals for the interior of the passenger cars that would inspire ticket-buyers to go west.

In 1948, Mary began work on a mural for the California Zephyr’s Silver Lariat.  The train was built as a dome coach, a series of cars that have glass domes on the top where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train.  Mary painted a mural of the Pony Express in the large dining and lounge car.

Over the course of her five-year business relationship with the Budd Company, she created murals for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Denver and Rio Grande Western, and the Western Pacific Railroad.  Mary’s murals generally adorned the end walls of the dome coaches and they always depicted Western historical themes.  She also sculpted the appliques of apples and grapes which hung at each end of the dining cars as well as the lyre-based radio speakers.

Mary Lawser died in 1985 at the age of seventy-nine.

To learn more about Mary Lawser and the other ladies who helped build the railroad read

Iron Women

Betty MacDonald put her heart and soul into her humorous memoir.  The Egg and I, which became an unexpected 1947 bestseller.  The film rights to this story about a young woman on a chicken farm in Washington state were purchased for a down payment of $100,000, a large sum at the time, with a percentage of movie profits to follow.  However, soon after this financial windfall, MacDonald was sued for libel for $975,000 by the people of the small town, which was the basis of her book on the grounds that they felt their portrayal was a humiliation.  Defending herself caused the author to spend considerable money and grief, though MacDonald finally won the case when she proved that the characters in the book were composites.  MacDonald eventually moved from the Washington area she loved to California, but the whole episode had put a crack in her joy and she died of cancer at the age of forty-nine in 1958.

Several years ago, there was a television show called M. A. N. T. I. S.  I thought it was one of the greatest shows ever.  It was about a guy that was half man, half praying mantis, and he fought crime.  And the network cancelled it!  A regular guy who, when trouble reared its ugly head, half of him would turn into a praying mantis.  It’s interesting how some bad television shows become cult classics.  I wrote a book entitled No Place for a Woman:  The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West.  I spent more than two and a half years researching and writing the book.  I thought it was going to be a good book, but alas…  Like M. A. N. T. I. S., the problem wasn’t the idea, it was the presentation.  In addition to the various chapters about how suffrage was achieved in the Wild West there were several shorter stories about the movement.  Those sidebars should have been placed at the end of the chapters.  Instead, they were placed in the MIDDLE of the chapters.  The sidebars were supposed to be on darker gray paper, but that never happened.  The result, it’s difficult to read.  I’ve received numerous emails from people who think there are pages missing or simply find the work too complicated to muddle through.   It’s unfortunate.  I worked hard on that book and it turned out to be a disaster.  I had no control over the printing of the book, but my name is on it and readers blame me for everything about the book.  I’ve entered No Place for a Woman in a few book contests including the Spur Awards.  I’m so sorry for the judges.  They had the unfortunate task of trying to figure out just how to read the book.  The book didn’t win, place, or show.  The judges reviewing books for the Foreword Review Magazine Book of the Year award managed to look past the issue of the poor presentation.  I was informed yesterday that No Place for a Woman was one of five titles in the running for Book of the Year.  I’m sure it won’t do any better than that but given the issues with the book I’m grateful it got that far.  Bad TV and bad books are part of our culture and harmless enough when properly abused.  Like M. A. N. T. I. S., the only way to make No Place for a Woman better is if a laugh track is added.

Enter now to win a copy of

Iron Women: The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroads

Twenty-eight-year-old Elizabeth Cogley sat at a small desk in the Pennsylvania Railroad ticket office in Lewiston Junction, Pennsylvania, on April 16, 1861, frantically writing down the message coming through the telegraph.  The neatly dressed woman wore a serious expression; the message she was transcribing was vital and history making.  The day before, a similar wire had reached Elizabeth.  She carefully noted its contents and passed it along to the ranking military official in the area.  It was from President Abraham Lincoln, and it read, “I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress the wrongs already long enough endured.”  This was Lincoln’s first call for troops.  He asked for 75,000 volunteers.

The following day, Pennsylvania’s first war governor, Andrew G. Curtin, sent a telegram to Captain Selheimer, commander of the First Defenders Association in Lewiston, to rally his men together to report to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as soon as possible.  After delivering the message to the captain, Elizabeth was instructed to respond to Governor Curtin with news that he and his troops would “move at once.”  The railroad telegrapher dispatched the important information quickly and accurately.  Little did Elizabeth know the event would be remembered as the first telegraph exchange of the Civil War.

Born on November 24, 1833, Elizabeth learned telegraphy in the office of the National Telegraph Company.  She entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company on April 13, 1856.  She was stationed in the Lewiston office until the beginning of the Civil War.  She remained with the railroad company for more than forty years.

Some of the earliest women in railroading can be found in telegraph stations.  The job of the telegrapher was to transfer information between the train dispatcher and the train operator.  A telegrapher copied train orders and messages from the train crew and reported the passing trains to the dispatcher.  They also received and sent Western Union telegrams.  Most learned the trade from another operator.  Some attended schools such as the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York and the Pittsburgh Female College in Pittsburgh.

The qualifications needed to be a telegrapher were to be well read, to know how to spell, and to be able to learn Morse code.  According to author Virginia Penney’s book written in 1870 entitled How Women Can Make Money, a good lady telegraphist could make between $300 and $500 a year.  With that in mind, many women with some knowledge of electricity and good penmanship decided to pursue a career in the field.

To learn more about the telegraphers and other ladies who helped build the railroad read

Iron Women

Enter now to win a copy of

Iron Women:  The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad

The Harvey Car Courier Corps will take you away “into the beckoning, foot-loose distances of New Mexico,” reads the Santa Fe Railway brochure on Indian Detours.  The brochures were distributed to train travelers crossing the arid Southwest desert in the late 1920s, who were looking for adventure and romance.

Indian Detours were created by the Fred Harvey Company in 1925.  The popularity of the automobile and the airplane had created a lull in railroad travel.  The Harvey Company introduced the detours in hopes of encouraging the public to journey by train to their next vacation destination.  The tours were only available for the Southwest part of the country, from the Grand Canyon to Santa Fe.  The specialized tours by car were to divert passengers from the train for one to three days and drive them through the “wilderness panoramas” of northern New Mexico to Indian ruin sites and living pueblos.

The drivers of the Harvey vehicles, which included Packards, Franklins, Cadillacs, and White Motor Company buses, were always men.  The tour guides or “couriers” were always women.  Executives at the Harvey Company believed following the business model of the Harvey Girls would assure the success of the Indian Detours.

The women selected to be members of the Harvey Car Courier Corps spent weeks training for their positions.  In order to be qualified tour guides, they were required to know the archaeological, ethnological, cultural, geological, botanical, historical, and legislative makeup of New Mexico.  It was necessary that the information they shared with travelers was accurate.  The couriers attended lectures and participated in trips along the detour trail.  According to the March 12, 1975, edition of the Santa Fe New Mexican, the majority of the Harvey Car Courier Corps members found the work interesting.  Aside from teaching school, there were very few interesting jobs for women post World War I.  Couriers earned $150 a month, $160 a month if they spoke a foreign language and could communicate with travelers from other countries.

Among the well-known individuals who took advantage of the Indian Detours was Albert Einstein, John D. Rockefeller, Will Rogers, and Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the wireless telegraphy.

The Harvey Couriers were required to dress in Navaho-style costumes while giving the tours.  The authentic outfit consisted of velveteen skirt, concha belts, and squash blossom necklaces.

The tours originated from the Harvey Houses: the Castaneda in Las Vegas, New Mexico; the Alvarado in Albuquerque; the Ortiz in Lamy; and the Navajo in Gallup.  The most popular detour trips were to the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, and the Indian Pueblos in Taos and Santa Clara.  The cost for the tours ranged from $10 to $14 a day.

The Great Depression brought about the end of the Indian Detours and the Harvey Couriers.

To learn more about the ladies who helped build the railroad read

Iron Women.

Enter now to win a copy of

Iron Women:  The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad

In July 1927, Pearl Matlock, assistant manager of the Fred Harvey Company advertising department, helped organize train travel for more than 1,000 delegates of the Business and Professional Women’s Club.  The career women were making their way from New York to Oakland, California, for the national convention.  The train made stops along the way to collect representatives of the organization, and at each stop reporters were waiting to cover the momentous trip.  Pearl was one of the Harvey Company’s employees as well as the national chairwoman of the Business and Professional Women’s Club.

By the summer of 1927, the organization had more than 45,000 members.  Its goal was to call attention to the “broadening effect of women’s contact in businesses and promote higher efficiency among them.”  An article about the event in the February 20, 1927, edition of the Albuquerque Journal explained that “Businesswomen in the East, who did not fully realize and appreciate the historic and artistic Southwest, would have an opportunity on the train trip to acquaint themselves with the progress made in that part of the country.”

Key delegates of the Business and Professional Women’s Club acted as “conductors” when the train traveled through their respective home states.  The BPW transcontinental train was scheduled for extended stopovers in Colorado, Santa Fe, and at the Grand Canyon.

The July 14, 1927, edition of the Arizona Daily Star covered the group’s arrival into Flagstaff on July 13.  “When the train jolted to a stop at 3 A.M., twenty BPW/AZ ‘cowboys’ dressed in ten-gallon hats, neckerchiefs, white blouses, blue, bobby skirts, guns, and holsters pretended to hold up the train,” the article explained.  “Once on board, they distributed copper and wooden souvenirs, Progressive Arizona magazine, a half a train carload of cantaloupes, and other Arizona fruit to passengers.”

When the train arrived at the Grand Canyon at 6 A.M., Governor George W. Hunt and other staff officials welcomed the organization’s president to Arizona.  Hopi Indians performed ceremonial dances, and cowboys staged a small rodeo.  After disembarking from the train, passengers walked or drove around the canyon rim while others rode mules a short distance down the Bright Angel Trail.  The day ended when the Santa Fe Railway transported the women to a banquet at the Harvey House hotel the El Tovar.

The first all women railroad party to cross the continental divide arrived in Oakland on July 21, 1927.  The organization’s motto “Better Businesswomen for a Better Business World”, typified all the club represented.  It would eventually become the largest women’s organization in the world.

To learn more about ladies who helped build the railroad read Iron Women.

Enter now to win a copy of

Iron Women:  The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad

Enter now to win a copy of

Iron Women:  The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad

Twenty-eight-year-old Elizabeth Cogley sat at a small desk in the Pennsylvania Railroad ticket office in Lewiston Junction, Pennsylvania, on April 16, 1861, frantically writing down the message coming through the telegraph.  The neatly dressed woman wore a serious expression; the message she was transcribing was vital and history making.  The day before, a similar wire had reached Elizabeth.  She carefully noted its contents and passed it along to the ranking military official in the area.  It was from President Abraham Lincoln, and it read, “I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress the wrongs already long enough endured.”  This was Lincoln’s first call for troops.  He asked for 75,000 volunteers.

The following day, Pennsylvania’s first war governor, Andrew G. Curtin, sent a telegram to Captain Selheimer, commander of the First Defenders Association in Lewiston, to rally his men together to report to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as soon as possible.  After delivering the message to the captain, Elizabeth was instructed to respond to Governor Curtin with news that he and his troops would “move at once.”  The railroad telegrapher dispatched the important information quickly and accurately.  Little did Elizabeth know the event would be remembered as the first telegraph exchange of the Civil War.

Born on November 24, 1833, Elizabeth learned telegraphy in the office of the National Telegraph Company.  She entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company on April 13, 1856.  She was stationed in the Lewiston office until the beginning of the Civil War.  She remained with the railroad company for more than forty years.

Some of the earliest women in railroading can be found in telegraph stations.  The job of the telegrapher was to transfer information between the train dispatcher and the train operator.  A telegrapher copied train orders and messages from the train crew and reported the passing trains to the dispatcher.  They also received and sent Western Union telegrams.  Most learned the trade from another operator.  Some attended schools such as the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York and the Pittsburgh Female College in Pittsburgh.

To learn more about Dr. Mary Pennington and other women who built the railroad read

Iron Women

Enter to win a copy of

Iron Women:  The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad

Iron Women examines women who contributed to the rise of the railroads. The chapters cover inventors, writers, bosses, and the infamous Harvey Girls. Women played an integral part in making the railroads a significant factor in US history. The chapter I find the most interesting was the one on the Harvey Girls. I had a vague idea who they were, but I had no idea it was a chain of restaurants and hotels along the southwest that gave jobs to thousands of women from the 1890s-1930s. This book adds to women’s history and industrial history genres.  Goodreads Review

Enter now to win a copy of

Iron Women:  The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad

The sun blazed high in a brassy sky, and heat danced in undulating waves across the high plateau town of Winslow, Arizona.  In the far distance, a train with the name Santa Fe Railway embossed on its side hurried along steel rails toward the La Posada Hotel.  It was May 15, 1930, opening day for the newest link in the chain of Fred Harvey hotels found along the Santa Fe line between Chicago and the Pacific Coast.

The main lobby of the grand establishment was crowded with local and state politicians, Native Americans, businessmen and their wives, enthusiastic patrons, and, of course Harvey Girls, those dedicated women who worked as wait staff at restaurants and hotels from Kansas to California.  Among those celebrating the launch of La Posada was its architect, Mary Colter.  The sixty-two-year-old designer beamed with pride as she surveyed the rambling earth tinted structure.  Inspired by the great ranchos of old Mexico, the hotel was the embodiment of simplicity, spacious comfort and colorful interest, characteristic of early Spanish craftmanship.

One of Mary’s friends handed her a glass of champagne to toast the event, but, before she could raise her glass, a pair of rowdy, well-dressed cowboys on horseback burst into the entrance of the magnificent vestibule.  One of the exuberant men rode over to Mary, hopped off his horse, scooped her up in her arms, and placed her on the check-in counter.  The two cowboys celebrated Mary’s accomplishment by firing their guns into the air.  Before the gathering had a chance to fully process the actions of the joyful pair, the cowboys quickly walked their horses out of the hotel.

Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter’s business relationship with Fred Harvey, the hotelier, restauranteur and retailer, and the Santa Fe Railway lasted more than forty years.  The gifted architect and designer created numerous, large scale projects for the Harvey Company and the rail line.  All of which helped promote both businesses and made train travel pleasurable for those heading west.

To learn more about Mary Colter and the other ladies who helped build the railroad read Iron Women