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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
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
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
A young boy posed in a wide stance gazes into the distance. His arms hold a cape outstretched at his sides. The young boy’s name is Georgie and he is an Ojibwe of the Mille Lacs Band in Minnesota. Georgie is one of the many characters depicted in comic books produced by the Mille Lacs Band to educate their children, and also the non-Native American public, on Ojibwe culture. In the comic A Hero’s Voice, Georgie’s grandfather teaches him the importance of recognizing the real heroes in his life, his ancestors, not imagined comic book heroes. Georgie’s grandfather guides him through hundreds of years of Ojibwe history, highlighting how his ancestors fought to protect their rights and land from Anglo interlopers. At the end of the story Georgie is told that he too can be a hero, by protecting the…Read More
Cory Lampert, Head, Digital Collections, 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, Cory Lampert, Head of Digital Collections gives us a glimpse into life working among the rare treasures of the library.
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
Down on the first-floor processing area of UNLV’s Lied Library, our local National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant project team is busy at work organizing, rehousing, and describing three of the largest gaming collections in Special Collections. The project team includes two graduates of UNLV’s History Department masters’ program, Lindsay Oden and Hannah Robinson, who are employed as full-time project archivists, as well as a graduate student assistant from the History Department, Lee Hanover, and an undergraduate student assistant, Hana Gutierrez.
While we often refer to our work unofficially as the “NHPRC project,” the official project title is "America’s Great Gamble: A Project to Promote the Discovery of Sources About the…Read More
As sixth year students in UNLV's School of Architecture, we are preparing research theses for our final year of studies in the Master's program. We are interested in urban history, Jimmy in how urban areas and architecture are portrayed in popular media and Tyler in the architectural development of Las Vegas. In order to better understand the architectural history of Las Vegas, we are working this summer as interns for UNLV University Libraries Special Collections processing the Gary Guy Wilson and Martin Stern architectural records. It has been a lot of fun to learn from the work of these two influential architects as we discover, organize, rehouse, and describe their collected drawings.
Students from UNLV School of Architecture, Tyler Stanger and Jimmy Chang,…Read More
Aaron Mayes, Visual Materials Curator, Special Collections Division
In our Secrets from Special Collections series, UNLV Libraries Special Collections staff members reveal a few lesser-known aspects about the archives and offer up personal insight into research and discovery, sharing answers, based on their own experiences, to six intriguing questions. Here, Aaron Mayes, curator for visual materials, 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…Read More
Paul Franke is a doctoral candidate in history at the International Max Planck Research School for Moral Economies of Modern Societies and the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. His research interests are the history of gaming, urban history, the history of entertainment and pop-culture in both the USA and Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Shakespeare's First Folio (image courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library)
In little over a month and a half, one of the Shakespeare First Folios will go on display in the UNLV Libraries Special Collections reading room as part of the national tour of First Folio: The Book That Gave Us Shakespearefrom the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. Accompanying it will be a number of interesting panels that will put the Folio into historical context, and provide information on the Bard himself, as well as…Read More
