The Prencess Nelson Scrapbooks (approximately 1950-1979) consist of three scrapbooks documenting the career of Prencess Mayhall, a former showgirl and model. The scrapbooks contain photographs, newspaper clippings, magazine covers, and handwritten notes to Mayhall from various performers and models. Mayhall performed in a variety of shows in New York; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Los Angeles, California. She appears in photographs at a number of shows at the Thunderbird, Sands, and Frontier Hotels. Also included in the scrapbook is a 1954 American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) contract between Mayhall and Copacabana in New York, and photographs of Mayhall with entertainers including Red Skelton, Paul Anka, and Sammy Davis Jr. Prencess went by a number of names throughout her career, most commonly 'Prencess Mayhall' while in New York, and 'Lee Temple' while performing at the Sands Hotel.
Archival Collection
The Bill Hughes Photographs (approximately 1980-2012) contains negatives, slides, prints, proofs, and born digital images created by local photographer and photojournalist Bill Hughes for publications including Las Vegas CityLife, Las Vegas Business Press, Las Vegas Weekly, as well as commercial clients. A portion of prints in the collection consist of modeling photographs Hughes took as part of his business. The digital images represent a variety of clients, and feature local bands, DJs, and performers in nightclubs and bars on the Strip and downtown Las Vegas. Also included in digital files are portraits, artistic photographs and self-portraits, and material used for Las Vegas Weekly, CityLife, and Business Press.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Florence Dolphyne conducted by Claytee D. White on July 16, 1999 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, Professor Dolphyne, the first female professor at the University of Ghana, West Africa, talks about her upbringing in a small village and explains how the African concept of "village" differs from the American definition. She discusses early childhood education, learning through play, and rituals and naming ceremonies. She then shifts focus to discuss economic development for women in Africa, how the women's rights movement differed from the United States, and various aspects of women in trade and business.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Earl McDonald conducted by Claytee D. White on October 4, 2000 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, McDonald, a sixty-year resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, relates his background in Mississippi and Louisiana, leaving home at fourteen and traveling to California, and being drafted into the Army during World War II. He then discusses moving to Las Vegas and working as a musician and valet while training to be an electrician. He talks at length about the Westside, detailing the clubs and restaurants that opened along Jackson Street, including the El Rio, the Cotton Club, the El Morocco, and the Ebony Club. He also explains the discrimination that prevented Black individuals from joining unions even when they worked union jobs, and the response by the United States Justice department. He also discusses gambling and the potential for revitalizing the Westside community.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with John Mance conducted by Claytee D. White on February 27, 1998 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, Mance discusses his introduction to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), forming a local branch in California in 1955, and his continued involvement with the executive committee of the national organization since that date. He explains the heirarchy and make-up of the NAACP, from the national convention to the local branches and their rights and responsibilities. He continues talking about the officers, who are all volunteers, and the numbers of paid administrative staff. He explains his involvement in the various local branches and his forty-two years as a national board member.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Tonnie Sumler conducted by Claytee D. White on May 21, 1996 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. Sumler talks about moving from Fordyce, Arkansas to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1989, seeking better opportunities. She expresses some concern for her daughter's high school education in Las Vegas, believing the smaller class sizes in Fordyce would be better, and then talks about how she started working as a housekeeper for Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino after joining the Culinary Workers Union. She explains that there was a possibility of a strike in 1997 and details some of the reasons why.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Alice Key conducted by Claytee D. White, with Joyce Moore and two unidentified individuals on November 11, 2004 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: A Collaborative Oral History Project. In this informal interview, Key talks about her early education, sharing anecdotes along with more serious comments. She continues talking about her early activism, beginning with housing discrimination in Los Angeles, California, the work of President Lyndon Johnson on equal rights, her work on the Clark County Nevada Economic Opportunity Board, and the issue of hiring Black front-of-house employees at the casinos and hotels. She continues chatting about families who own or owned casinos in Las Vegas, different church leaders in the city, and ends talking about early Black entertainers, including Dorothy Dandridge and the Barry Brothers and her own experiences as a dancer.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Anna Corine Tisdale conducted by Claytee D. White on May 28, 1996 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Tisdale, a native of Fordyce, Arkansas, talks about her background as the daughter of sharecroppers, her marriage, and her move to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1954. She recalls living in a small trailer with her husband and four children for several months before the family moved to "Four Mile" near the Boulder Highway. She details her working life, starting as a retail clerk and then moving into hotel housekeeping, eventually earning promotion as the first Black supervisor-inspector at the Sahara Hotel and Casino. She also offers comparisons of her life in Fordyce and Las Vegas, about recreational activities, education, race issues, and how men and women worked in the same environment in the 1960s. The audio also includes a brief conversation with her oldest daughter, Nancy.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Charles Quander conducted by Claytee D. White on October 27, 2005 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. Quander, who served as a flight officer in the Army Air Corps first all-Black fighter and bomber squadrons known collectively as the Tuskegee Airmen, talks about his upbringing in Washington, D.C., his early interest in flight, and his decision to train as a pilot at the outset of World War II. Quander talks about his training and reflects on both the process of learning to fly and the discrimination that the cadets experienced from the predominately white senior officers. He then talks about his post-military education and his career with the federal government, working as an investigator for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and the United States Attorney's strike force on organized crime. He ends the interview describing his retirement and travel, his move to Las Vegas, Nevada, and his views on war, the Department of Homeland Security, and his perceptions of Las Vegas' growth.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Robert A. Lynn conducted by Lisa Gioia-Acres on January 29, 2007 for the UNLV @ 50 Oral History Project. In this interview, Lynn discusses his background, education in Las Vegas, Nevada, his parents and siblings, his military career, and his professional and work training that prepared him for his first position as a groundskeeper at UNLV in 1986. He continues to discuss his career at UNLV as he rose from groundskeeper to Ground Facilities Supervisor, mentioning various project highlights, construction projects, and his supervisory style that helped create a close-working team.
Archival Collection