In the cool sub-basement of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, we’re getting an extraordinary private tour of Indian baskets, blankets and Kachina dolls from the priceless Fred Harvey Indian art collection—which the family donated to the museum in the 1970s. Some of these pieces can be seen, behind glass, in Heard exhibit cases, but we’re down in the storerooms, where the 4000+ artifacts are warehoused, shelf after shelf after shelf of amazing work, some of them the very same pieces visible in classic Southwestern photos. I’m here to give a talk to what is probably the most Fred-knowledgeable audience in the country, including curators at the Heard who have been working with the family art collection for years (the corporate files are also here), and wrote the first great books on Harvey in the 1990s. (Here’s a picture of Kathy Howard, one of those author/curators, showing very cool baskets well over a hundred years old.) During the talk and booksigning (co-sponsored by the excellent indie store Changing Hands) we all met a delightful Grand Canyon Harvey Girl from the 1950’s. We’ve now met former Harvey Girls at almost every stop and never cease to be amazed how youthful and engaging they are. Apparently it took a really special kind of young woman to have the guts to leave home, travel west and succeed as a Harvey Girl—and they all grew into really special people.

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