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Community Involvement

A key component of the oral history research was involvement with various Las Vegas and Nevada-based communities of interest. Project faculty and students attended reunions of test site retirees, observed current protest activities and were invited to meetings of groups representing the spectrum of responses to and commemorations of Cold War nuclear testing events. Several participants supplemented their remembrances with photographs, letters and documents that are housed in the Department of Special Collections. Some project interviewees gave documents and photographs to other Las Vegas area archives thus strengthening regional historical repositories. Related materials donations are noted in individual interviewee records in the collection.

With the completion of the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project, it is anticipated that UNLV faculty and students will add material to the archive as their individual research interests intersect with the project’s work. One area of inquiry will be an in-depth exploration of the experiences of African American test site workers. Doctoral student Leisl Carr Childers’ research involves oral histories of test radiation monitors and surrounding ranching communities. As funding support allows, additional oral histories may be added to the archive.