What's New In Special Collections

Six Secrets from Special Collections with Michael Don Fraser

Michael Don Fraser, Book and Paper Conservator, Special Collections Division

In our Secrets from Special Collections series, UNLV Libraries Special Collections staff members divulge what they consider to be the hidden gems of the library, sharing answers, based on their own experiences, to six intriguing questions. Here, Book and Paper Conservator Michael Don Fraser gives us a glimpse into life working among the rare treasures of the library.

1. When you first began working in Special Collections, what was the one item or collection that made your jaw drop, and why? Describe.Read More

Telling Tales in Special Collections: Tales from the Pit

Tales from the Pit, a new publication edited by David G. Schwartz, Director of the Center for Gaming Research, inside UNLV Libraries Special Collections (Cover photo by Aaron Mayes, UNLV Special Collections Curator of Visual Materials)

UNLV Libraries Special Collections houses a vast collection of recorded, transcribed and/or digitized oral histories—first-person narratives told by Las Vegas pioneers and residents, some covering events that happened 100 years or more in the past. They are, in a way, self-portraits of people from many professions, cultures and lifestyles who have shared in Las Vegas’…Read More

New Libraries Exhibit Features Items from University Archives

A new exhibit in Lied Library curated by social sciences librarian Heidi Johnson features a number of original documents, photographs, yearbooks, and copies of the UNLV student newspaper Rebel Yell drawn from the University Archives in Special Collections. The original documents were essential to chronicling the history of student activism at UNLV over six decades.  

“Documents from the University Archives offer examples of students working with administrators to change curricula and programming to meet the needs of a diverse student body,” said Michelle Light,…Read More

Collection highlight: Gary Guy Wilson and the primitive hut, by Tyler Stanger and Jimmy Chang

As one of the oldest of architectural theories, the ‘primitive hut’ has influenced generations of architects. A primitive hut occurs when vertical tree trunks planted in the ground support a horizontal beam that bears a sloped roof to shed rainwater. In 1753 the French theorist Marc-Antoine (Abbe) Laugier argued that the Primitive Hut testifies of architecture’s natural origins and that it, the primitive hut, is the prototype of all built form.

Laugier Primitive Hut
Marc-Antoine (Abbe) Laugier called attention to architecture’s natural beginnings with this image.
Image credit: Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Essai_sur_l%27Architecture_-_Frontispiece.jpg

In 1851 Gottfried Semper expanded the primitive…Read More

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