The Oral History Research Center (OHRC) was formally established by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada System in September 2003 as an entity of the UNLV University Libraries’ Special Collections Division.
The OHRC conducts, collects, and makes available audio and video interviews. Narrators are selected for their ability to provide reliable first-hand accounts of the history of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. Each year the OHRC defines one or more new projects that center around a particular historical subject or theme. These projects result in a series of interrelated histories. The Boyer Early Las Vegas History Project is ongoing.
Interviews conducted by the OHRC as well as interviews recorded by several earlier projects may be found via our Special Collections and Archives Portal.
Director: Vacant
Project Manager: Stefani Evans - stefani.evans@unlv.edu
- Design projects that will orally capture the history of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada.
- Serve as a clearinghouse for oral history projects at UNLV and across the Las Vegas area (including libraries, historical societies, museums, and community colleges), providing information to patrons and acting as a repository for selected projects.
- Play an active role in state, regional, and national oral history associations that will provide an audience for and critiques of our various projects.
- Teach classes and seminars in the art of collecting oral histories.
- Assist Special Collections and Archives in securing collections of historical documents where appropriate.
- Promote oral history as a method of gathering and preserving historical information.
- Promote and foster professional standards and practices in the development of oral history.
Finding individual oral histories
An annotated list of our oral histories can be found in the Special Collections and Archives Portal which also provides information on whether a transcript is available for patron use.
In some cases, a digitized transcript will be linked to the record. Please note that some oral histories have been cataloged and their records (searchable by interviewee’s name, call number, interviewer name, subject, and call number) can be found in the library catalog.
Oral history projects
Explore the oral history collection organized by project to understand focused initiatives that document interrelated histories: Oral History Projects
For remote users, if there is no release form on file for the interview, the interview is accessible on site only.
Researchers must seek permission from the interviewee or heirs for quotation, reproduction, or publication. Please contact us for further information.
Explore the oral history collection organized by project to understand focused initiatives that document interrelated histories: Oral History Projects