Elizabeth Harrington Collection. T-165. Special Collections, UNLV Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Donated by Elizabeth Harrington in 1984.
Marie Imus, April 1996.
This collection is open for research.
For permission to reproduce or publish from this collection, please contact the Director of Special Collections.
Elizabeth Harrington was born January 25, 1898 in Salida, Colorado. She married Arthur Harrington, a bookkeeper with the Empire Zinc Company of New Jersey, shortly before the couple’s 1916 move to Southern Nevada. The Empire Zinc Company then owned the Potosi Mine just outside of Las Vegas. The eldest of the Harrington’s five sons, Vincent, was one of the first three babies born at Potosi in 1918. The family moved to Hanover, New Mexico, around 1920 when the Potosi mine closed, but later returned to Las Vegas where Arthur started the Harrington Insurance Company. Arthur also was a founding member of both the Kiwanis Club in February 1926, and of the Bank of Nevada in May 1941. He served as the Kiwanis Club's first secretary and was named Secretary of the Board for the Bank of Nevada. Elizabeth was a writer who chronicled the early 1900’s era of the Las Vegas Valley, but completed most of her work in later life.
The Harringtons moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1946 because of Elizabeth's health, and Arthur died in 1961. From 1975 to 1979, Elizabeth wrote a series of historical articles from her personal knowledge and experience in Southern Nevada that were published in the Nevadan, the former Sunday magazine of the Review-Journal. Harrington’s articles described life in early Las Vegas and Potosi, touching on aviation, Helldorado, banking, hotels, and medicine.
Elizabeth Harrington passed away in September 1992 at the age of 94. She was survived by three sons and several grandchildren and great grandchildren. Her sons, John and Robert, resided in Santa Monica, California, while her son Paul resided in Prescott, Arizona.
The Elizabeth Harrington Collection contains original drafts of thirteen essays that reflect life in early Las Vegas. These articles were written from Harrington's memory and experiences. They were published in the Nevadan section of the Review-Journal between 1975-1979. The time span of these essays is from 1904 to the early 1940s, yet a few of these writings cover a broader time period.
The brevity of some of these articles and the small size of the collection may present some problems for researchers who desire more in-depth information about early Las Vegas and its residents, who may need to turn to additional sources for more information. While Harrington's essays often mention early residents and their businesses, they rarely focus on these individuals. Instead, most of her work conveys the ambiance of a by-gone era instead of presenting the details of daily life.
Harrington included over fifty photographs of early Las Vegas, including its citizens and their activities, as they related to the essays. They are a strong point of this collection because she labeled many of the photographs in detail. These photographs were removed to the photo collection, but xerox copies remain with the articles.
The collection also includes a copy of the Hotel Nevada registry on its opening day, May 29th through June 1st, 1905, and a grammar school commencement program from May 29, 1935. The original accession number for the collection was 84-42.
The collection is divided into folders by essay.
Over 50 photographs of early Las Vegas were removed to the UNLV Special Collections Photograph Collection 0291.
For related topics and further information see the following collections:
Ellen B. Jensen Collection, T-18
Celesta Lowe Collection, MS 95-48
C. P. & Delphine Squires Collection, MS 9