What's New In Special Collections

Collection highlight: Martin Stern Jr.'s architectural vision for Autoworld, by Jimmy Chang and Tyler Stanger

Aerial perspective illustrating Stern's conceptual layout for Harrah's Autoworld complex. Martin Stern Architectural Records, 1953-1990. MS-00382. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

UNLV Libraries is home to the Martin Stern Architectural Records.  UNLV School of Architecture students Jimmy Chang and Tyler Stanger explore an unbuilt project of architect Martin Stern Jr., whose projects, from the International Hotel to the first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, have paved the way for both intellectual thought and physical land in Las Vegas.

Classic Corvette convertibles shimmer under spotlights, and curvy Chrysler coupes tempt with taillights. Among a nostalgic background of sights and sounds, a…Read More

Girl Scout Records in UNLV Libraries, by Angela Moor

Girl Scouts at Camp Foxtail, Nevada, 1994. Frontier Girl Scouts Records, 1944-1999. MS-00421. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

March is Women's History Month—a perfect time to recognize Girl Scouts, an organization for young women dedicated to making the world a better place.  National Girl Scout Day is also in March— it's celebrated March 12 to commemorate the first Girl Scout Troop meeting, which was held in Georgia on that day in 1912. Troops selling cookies aren’t the only presence of Girl Scouts on campus—UNLV Libraries Special Collections holds over 40 feet of Frontier Girl Scouts Records, documenting the history of girl scouting in…Read More

Staff Highlight: Oscar Giurcovich and the Nevada Digital Newspaper Project

Project Technician Oscar Giurcovich with the Nevada Digital Newspaper Project (NVDNP) at UNLV

If you're curious about some of the work UNLV Libraries Special Collections staff members are doing in the archives, our Staff Highlight feature answers commonly-asked questions about their projects and perspectives. Here, Project Technician Oscar Giurcovich with the Nevada Digital Newspaper Project offers a look into his current activities.

1. What are you working on right now? How will it…Read More

A Note on Sovereignty, by Lee M. Hanover

Handwritten note from the Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming, 1789-2015. MS-00092. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

As a Special Collections summer intern turned part-time employee, I have had the opportunity to see the Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming sorted and organized, and watch its finding aid grow from 32 pages to an astounding 100+ page document contextualizing its many regional, professional, and subject files. My time working on the National Historical Publications and…Read More

African Americans: The Las Vegas Experience Documentary Premiere February 20

On Monday, Feb. 20, the UNLV University Libraries’ multi-year project “Documenting the African American Experience in Las Vegas” will culminate with the premiere of the Vegas PBS documentary African Americans: The Las Vegas Experience.

“The history of the Las Vegas African American community is the history of Las Vegas,” says Patricia Iannuzzi, dean of the UNLV University Libraries. “This documentary ​honors the African American community of Las Vegas and we are grateful to have the opportunity to share this story in the words of the people who lived it.”

African Americans: The Las Vegas Experience is the result of a partnership between UNLV University Libraries and Vegas PBS, with grant funding provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Commission for the Las Vegas…Read More

Ready for Researchers! Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming, by Hannah Robinson

Photograph of the “Tending the Fire” statue in front of the Potawatomi Bingo in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, approximately 1999-2001. Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming. MS-00092. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

In the 1990s and early 2000s Native American nations across the United States readily embraced gaming as a new opportunity for economic growth. The Katherine A. Spilde Papers on Native American Gaming include materials collected by anthropologist Katherine Spilde about Native American gaming…Read More

Glenn Davis - Las Vegas Photographer by Maryse Lundering-Timpano

Glenn Davis photographed a sailboat on Lake Mead near the crest of Boulder Dam from the upstream Nevada side. The dam was officially renamed Hoover Dam in 1947.  (PH: 0020-0126)

UNLV history graduate student Maryse Lundering-Timpano worked as a summer intern in Special Collections this past June and July creating finding aids for our many historic photograph collections. Here she describes a collection of particular interest to her.

Here Davis photographed the main construction site of the Boulder Dam project from the downstream side. (PH: 0020-0072)

Hoover Dam was the first federal government project in…Read More

The Building Las Vegas Collecting Initiative

Photograph of the I-15 corridor, March 23, 2016.  Aaron Mayes, UNLV University Libraries Special Collections.


Photograph of the I-15 corridor, March 23, 2016.  Aaron Mayes, UNLV Libraries Special Collections.


Special Collections launched the Building Las Vegas collecting initiative in July 2016. With start-up funding from the Tiberti Family, the project initially focuses on collecting oral histories with architects, urban planners, builders, developers, contractors, interior designers,…Read More

"The Future is Here" Early tech adopters in gaming seen through the Christiansen Papers, by Lindsay Oden

The widespread use of computers and the internet made an indelible mark on the world of gaming, as it did on numerous other aspects of our lives. The Eugene Martin Christiansen Papers held in UNLV Libraries Special Collections document how gaming companies, gamblers, race tracks, and casinos began looking into the forerunners of internet gaming as early as the 1970s and had been using networked computers as a resource decades before most people were online.


The Eugene Martin Christiansen Papers (MS-00561) contain research files, reports, and presentations about gambling written by social scientist and consultant Eugene Martin Christiansen and his colleagues from approximately 1976 to 2008. The collection includes reports about legal and illegal gaming, including subjects such as economic impacts of legalized gaming, popularity of off-track betting, horse and dog racing, table games, gambling addiction, gaming…Read More

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

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