What's New In Special Collections

Six Secrets from Special Collections with Darnelle Melvin

UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives Metadata Librarian Darnelle Melvin.

In our Secrets from Special Collections series, UNLV Libraries Special Collections and Archives 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, Special Collections & Archives Metadata Librarian Darnelle Melvin 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…Read More

The Syphus-Bunker Love Letters by Angela Moor

The Mary Etta Syphus family home in Panaca, Nevada, where the packet of letters were found hidden in a wall years after the house had been abandoned.  Photo taken approximately 1973. (MS-00169) 

Love letters seem like an appropriate offering for Valentine's Day, and we hope you enjoy this story from our colleague Angela Moor. A Ph.D. candidate in the UNLV History Department, Moor works part-time as a member of our archival processing team, and that is where she first encountered this poignant collection of Syphus-Bunker correspondence.

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Exhibit Opening: BUILT Feb. 9

BUILT exhibit

Special Collections & Archives will host an opening celebration for our next exhibit, BUILT: A Photographic Survey of the Built Environment of the Las Vegas Valley, on Friday, Feb. 9 from 5:30-7 p.m. in the Goldfield Room at Lied Library.

Guests will have an opportunity to tour the exhibit at the start of the event and meet with photographer and exhibit curator Aaron Mayes. BUILT utilizes images captured by Mayes as part of the UNLV University Libraries Special Collections and Archives collecting initiative Building Las Vegas. The exhibit showcases Mayes’ work to date on the project and spotlights development trends, challenges, successes, and failures in our…Read More

BUILT: A Photographic Survey of the Built Environment of the Las Vegas Valley

logo for exhibit shows text, Built: A Photographic Survey of the Built Environment of the Las Vegas Valley

A new exhibit showcasing the extreme diversity of the built environment in Las Vegas is now open on the first floor of Lied Library. "BUILT: A Photographic Survey of the Built Environment of the Las Vegas Valley" features an extensive collection of photographs taken by photographer Aaron Mayes, Visual Materials Curator in Special Collections & Archives, from the Building Las Vegas project.

BUILT showcases Mayes’ work to date on the project and spotlights development trends, challenges, successes, and failures in our desert city. As part of “Building Las Vegas,” Mayes has taken thousands of photos of the built environment of Las Vegas from housing developments and construction sites to the Strip and the washes and wetlands that dot our desert landscape. He combines these with…Read More

Eadington Gaming Fellows Dana Herrera & Cynthia Van Gilder: In Residence Jan 3 - Jan 19

Special Collections and Archives and the Center for Gaming Research are delighted to welcome our latest Eadington Fellows, Dr. Dana Herrera and Dr. Cynthia Van Gilder who are working on a joint research project centered on "Hawaiian Vegas."

Unbeknownst to most visitors, Las Vegas is home to a unique niche tourism: it is overwhelmingly the vacation destination of choice for residents of the state of Hawai’i, even affectionately termed the “Ninth Island.” It is estimated that 1 in 10 residents of Hawai’i visit Las Vegas at least once per year. These Hawaiian travelers to Las Vegas primarily select The California Hotel, nicknamed, “The Cal,” as their preferred sleeping, gambling…Read More

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