Book collection overview
Our book collection predominantly focuses on Las Vegas and gambling. Most comprehensive are holdings relating to the history, culture, and environment of Las Vegas, including popular works, specialized studies, government publications, and fiction set in Las Vegas. The collection also includes titles relating to the history of Nevada, the American Southwest, and the American West.
A recent addition to our book collections has been the Mavis Eggle "Books as They Were Bought" Collection which was donated by Beverly Rogers. This collection contains a broad overview of printed material from the 1780s through 1949 and is used as a teaching collection for various disciplines.
Visual and book arts
Special Collections and Archives has assembled a range of illustrative works, graphic design, and book arts related to Las Vegas and the American West. Examples include 19th-century landscapes created by artists on scientific expeditions, as well as architectural renderings of hotels. The collection also features movie posters, prints, book covers and jackets, and menus.
The UNLV book arts collection is small and regional in scope, with a focus on presses and artists connected to the American West. It features the complete works of Rainmaker Press, published by UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute, as well as works from the University of Nevada, Reno’s Black Rock Press. Additional regional artists and presses include Peter Koch (San Francisco), Dan Stolpe (Santa Cruz), and San Diego’s Brighton Press, along with miniature book artist Jill Timm. Las Vegas artists represented include Linda Alterwitz, James Stanford, and Collette LaBouff.
Many of these works—including examples of book arts, fine press, and publisher’s bindings—are on permanent exhibit in the Special Collections Reading Room.
Mavis Eggle "Books as They Were Bought" Collection
The Mavis Eggle “Books as They Were Bought” Collection provides a broad overview of printed materials from the 1780s through 1949. Gathered by collector Mavis Eggle, the collection documents the social history of books, newspapers, and ephemera.
The collection highlights the physical features of books, including printers’ marks, publishers’ bindings, bookplates, and materials from early subscription libraries. Its holdings include poetry, children’s literature, religious texts, broadsides, newspapers, and popular fiction.
Together, these materials illustrate changes in literature, printing and publishing, advertising, and book culture over more than 170 years.
Mavis Eggle collection finding aid
Mavis Eggle collection catalog records
Taxe Collection of Gaming Books
Named for Robert Taxe, this collection includes more than 820 rare and unique titles on a wide range of gaming topics. It was acquired in 1994 through a joint effort by the UNLV Foundation, the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality, and UNLV Libraries.
The collection covers subjects such as specific card games, game rules and tarot, the history of playing cards, and the cultural and moral dimensions of gaming. It also includes gentlemen’s magazines, political debates, and mathematical theories of probability and game theory.
While primarily in English, the collection also includes works in French, Latin, and German. The earliest title dates to 1574, and the most recent is a 1981 catalog of 17th and 18th century playing cards produced for auction. A small number of gaming-related periodicals and individual articles are also included.
Taxe Collection individual catalog records of books
Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions (MS-00913)
The Beverly Rogers Collection of Armed Services Editions includes 1,279 original paperback titles published between 1943 and 1947 for World War II service members in the United States Army and Navy.
The collection also includes four editions from the Legacy Project (2003) and one title from the Pocket Books, Inc. series (1944). The original Armed Services Editions feature unabridged works of both fiction and nonfiction.