Manuscripts
Manuscripts are original records, either handwritten, typed, or printed, that have been created or gathered together by individuals, organizations, institutions, or agencies to document their transactions, ideas, decisions, or discussions. They may be in the form of correspondence, diaries, ledgers, memoranda, minutes, accounts, reports, literary creations, title deeds, legal documents, and photographs.
Manuscripts serve as primary sources that provide first-hand documentation and evidence of the events, decisions, ideas, and actions that shape the development of a society or community. Finding aids and inventories provide detailed information on the contents of manuscript collections.
Browse a list of our manuscript collection summaries by title.
Photographs
The history of Las Vegas has been chronicled in great detail through professional and amateur photography dating back to the late 1800s. Like all our collections, our photographs mainly focus on Las Vegas, our region, and gaming worldwide. They reveal the rich environmental and human experience defined by a uniquely Southern Nevada way of life. From early pioneer families setting up tents along the Las Vegas creek, to towering metal and glass structures adorned with glowing neon, the story of Las Vegas comes to life in our photograph collections.
Besides being gathered into photograph specific collections (PH), many more can be found in Manuscript Collections (MS), and in Oral Histories (OH). Photographs throughout our collections may be in film or print form (negative or positive as well as in color and in black and white). Many may have been digitized or were born digital. There are over 200,000 of them available to explore in our portal and many more viewable during a visit to our reading room.
The majority of our photo collections have inventories listing photo captions that can be searched by keyword. However, thousands of these images have been digitized and can be viewed via our Digital Collections as we continually add more digitized photographs to the collections.
Periodicals
Special Collections & Archives holds a large number of periodicals or journals that focus on Las Vegas, Nevada, gaming, and gambling. They include legacy entertainment publications on Las Vegas such as Fabulous Las Vegas and as well as the most current Las Vegas community magazines such as Las Vegas Weekly. There are historic hotel newsletters and magazines as well as numerous gaming trade publications both legacy and current. A number of LGBTQ publications along with journals focused on SEEC topics also form part of the collection. Other periodicals focus on Nevada and its history as well as more general coverage of the American Southwest.
Periodicals are cataloged by title and subject and can be located in the online catalog.
Maps
Our collection includes maps dating from the early exploration of Nevada and the Southwest to the present. Many maps in our collection are available online as part of our digital project Southern Nevada and Las Vegas: History in Maps which features nearly 400 historical maps.
The collection includes:
- A series of nineteenth century military and railroad surveys and atlases
- Later state railroad maps
- Highway maps
- Topographical survey maps
- Official U.S. surveys as well as those created or annotated by individual geologists, hydrogeologists, and engineers
Other significant materials in the map collection includes:
- A comprehensive series of Las Vegas city maps
- Government land office surveys and plats (including the original U.S. Land Office survey maps of Clark County)
- Plats and site plans created by real estate developers
- Physical and topographic maps of Clark County
- Tourist maps of Las Vegas
Menus
Special Collections has an extensive collection of restaurant menus dating from the 1870s to the present day. A large selection of these historic menus can be viewed online in the digital project Menus: The Art of Dining.
They include the Bohn-Bettoni Menu Collection which is comprised of hundreds of historic menus dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A detailed finding aid provides information on menus from both international locations and restaurants located in the United States.
We also have collections focused on both 20th century hotel-casino and freestanding restaurants in Las Vegas as well as thousands of menus from around the United States and the world. These include:
- Bob Stoldal Collection of Nevada Menus (MS-01093)
- UNLV University Libraries Menu Collection (MS-00436)
- Tobias Mattstedt Menu Collection (MS-00823)
- Michael Circuit Menu Collection (MS-01164)
- Jean Hertzman Menu Collection(MS-00797)