New from the School of Medicine Library

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.

Read More

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

Special Collections and Archives Receives $100K NEH Grant to Launch Latino Voices Project

Lied Library, exterior
Lied Library, exterior

Special Collections and Archives in the UNLV University Libraries will receive a $100,000 Humanities Access Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a project to document the contributions of Latino communities to the development of Southern Nevada.

“Latino Voices in Southern Nevada” is an oral history and community engagement project aimed at expanding the diversity of the voices that Special Collections and Archives preserves. The project will involve students in connecting with the community, and engage multiple generations in reflecting on the lives and experiences of the region’s Hispanic residents.…Read More

Culinary Workers Union Collection Comes Alive Through Tech in Digital Collections Lab by Jasmin Bryant

Photographs of Frontier Victory rally , Culinary Union, Las Vegas (Nev.), 1998 January 31. Culinary Workers Union Local 226 Las Vegas, Nevada Photograph Collection (PH:00382)

In one photograph a diverse group of union workers hold up a banner together that boldly declares, “Whatever it takes. As long as it takes.” In another, Rev. Jesse Jackson holds his fist in the air during a labor union rally on the Strip. And in a series of negatives, the moment is captured when one of the longest labor strikes in American history finally ends, with jubilant workers embracing each…Read More

Chung, Schwartz, White Appointed to The Mob Museum Advisory Council

Three UNLV University Libraries faculty have been appointed to serve on the Advisory Council for The Mob Museum, The National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. Su Kim Chung, Head of Special Collections Public Services, David G. Schwartz, Director of the UNLV Center for Gaming Research, and Claytee White, Director of the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Research Center, were asked to serve on the expanded council in October. 

The council assists The Mob Museum with advancing the public understanding of organized crime’s history and impact on society. The Advisory Council membership roster includes former Senator Harry Reid, former Nevada Governor Bob Miller, and leaders within numerous law enforcement agencies, as well as academic and corporate entities. National members include experts from the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigations, and an array of intelligence specialists, journalists,…Read More

Special Collections & Archives Completes Work on NHPRC Grant “America’s Great Gamble”

"America's Great Gamble" project staff at work on the NHPRC-funded project. 

Special Collections and Archives (SCA) project staff recently completed work on the National Historical Publications & Records Commission (NHPRC) grant-funded project, “America’s Great Gamble: A Project to Promote the Discovery of Sources About the Expansion of Legalized Gambling Across the United States.” The $129,600 grant allowed SCA to hire…Read More

Remembering 1 October: A Collaborative Initiative to Document the Tragedy and Response

On October 1, 2017 a horrifying tragedy struck Las Vegas. A gunman opened fire into a crowd of 22,000 attending Route 91 Harvest Festival. Fifty-eight victims were killed and almost 500 people were injured in one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.

It is important that we do not forget. We must remember and honor the fallen and injured, the heroes and heroines, the first responders, the strength and resiliency of our community’s response, and the outpouring of national support. To preserve these stories, University Libraries Special Collections and Archives,…Read More

Harrah’s Entertainment Corporate Archives Ready for Researchers! by Hannah Robinson

1962 advertisement by Hoefer, Dieterich, & Brown, Inc. designed to entice people in the San Francisco Bay Area to spend the weekend at Harrah’s Tahoe spending money on games, drinks, and food.
1962 advertisement by Hoefer, Dieterich, & Brown, Inc. designed to entice people in the San Francisco Bay Area to spend the weekend at Harrah’s Tahoe spending money on games, drinks, and food.

The Harrah’s brand began in 1946 with Bill Harrah when he opened a bingo parlor in Reno, Nevada. Ever since the opening of Harrah’s Reno Club, the brand has contributed to and often led trends in casino and gaming marketing and corporate strategies. For…Read More

Ask Us