Film screening, discussion, new interviews: ‘The Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound’ (2013)

This 57-minute, 2013 film explores the era of the young women who contributed to the Harvey Company history by serving as waitresses in the restaurants along the transcontinental railroad from the 1880s till the 1960s.

Over the years more than 100,000 brave young women, “Harvey Girls” as they were called, made an unusual decision to leave home and travel west to work as waitresses along the transcontinental railroad opening the doors of both the West and the workplace to women. Directed by filmmaker Katrina Parks, left, this documentary film and oral history project reveal how the much-loved Harvey Girls opened up the doors of the American West to women and changed history.

After the film, at 2:30 p.m., new interviews and a question-and-answer session with filmmaker Katrina Parks and a special panel of history and culture experts will highlight Arizona Harvey Girls and add a diverse dimension missing from past scholarship. Panelists include Thaddeus Homan, the film’s editor; Heidi Osselaer, Ph.D., Arizona State University faculty associate and Arizona Women’s Heritage Trail; Ann-Mary Lutzick, director of Winslow’s Old Trails Museum; Colleen R. Lucero, B.F.A. (Hopi), Hopi Harvey Project curator/manager; .

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Get your own copy

Enjoy the screening, then take home a copy for yourself! The Harvey Girls: Opportunity Bound is available at the Heard’s Books & More bookstore for $14.99 each.

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Film screening and post-screening interviews and discussion supported by