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Tom and Erma Godbey Photograph Collection (PH-00262)

Abstract

The Tom and Erma Godbey Photograph Collection is comprised of thirteen black-and-white photographic prints and negatives from 1934 to 1944. The photographs depict the Godbey family participating in parades and other events in Boulder City, Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Finding Aid PDF

Date

1934 to 1944

Extent

0.10 Cubic Feet (1 hanging folder and 1 shared box of negatives)
0.10 Linear Feet

Related People/Corporations

Scope and Contents Note

The Tom and Erma Godbey Photograph Collection is comprised of thirteen black-and-white photographic prints and negatives from 1934 to 1944. The photographs depict the Godbey family performing in drum and bugle corps in Boulder City, Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection also includes photographs of the Godbeys in Boulder City and on the Colorado River.

Access Note

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.

Arrangement

Materials remain in original order.

Biographical / Historical Note

Thomas Mayborn Godbey was born in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1899. He moved west to Silverton, Colorado in 1923 to work in the mining industry. When work dried up in Colorado, he moved his family to Oatman, Arizona to continue working in the mines. After trying to organize for safer working conditions, Godbey was let go and moved his family to an area near the Colorado River in 1931. The family settled outside of what would become Boulder City, Nevada, in a tent city known as Ragtown. Tom Godbey’s first job in Nevada was working to build roads into the Hoover Dam construction site. In 1932, he received the first permit to lease property and build a private residence in Boulder City. He served in the Nevada legislature as an assemblyman from 1954 to 1958 and again from 1960 to 1966. He died in 1977.

Erma Ouida Godbey was born in 1905 in Colorado. She met Tom Godbey in Silverton, Colorado at her high school graduation. The two married in 1923. The Godbeys had five children: Thomas, Jim, Laura, Ila, and Alice. They were active members of the American Legion in Boulder City, taking part in the drum and bugle corps and orchestra. The children also participated in their school’s band. Erma was president of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary and Navy Mothers during World War II, and remained active in the American Red Cross after the war ended. Erma Godbey died on October 1, 1993.

Sources:

Godbey, Erma O. “Erma O. Godbey: Pioneering in Boulder City, Nevada.” Interview by Mary Ellen Glass. University of Nevada Oral History Program, March 7-9, 1966. Transcript. https://archive.org/details/GodbeyErma/mode/2up

“Sisters Recall Growing Up in Boulder City in the 30s.” Las Vegas Review-Journal. September 26, 2010. https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/sisters-recall-growing-up-in-boulder-city-in-the-30s/

Related Collections

The following resources may provide additional information about the materials in this collection:

Erma O. Godbey oral history interview, 1986 November 07. OH-00690. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tom Godbey oral history interview, 1974 September 18, 1984 September 27. OH-00691. Oral History Research Center, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Preferred Citation

Tom and Erma Godbey Photograph Collection, 1934-1944. PH-00262. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Acquisition Note

Materials were donated in 1991; accession number 91-11.

Processing Note

In 2020, Landon Paljusaj wrote the finding aid and entered the data into ArchivesSpace.

Resource Type

Collection

Collection Type

EAD ID

US::NVLN::PH00262

Finding Aid Description Rules

Describing Archives: A Content Standard
English