The Joseph C. Ives Personal Correspondence consists of seventeen photocopied letters between United States Army Corps of Topographic Engineers Lt. Joseph C. Ives and his wife, Cora Semmes Ives, between September 1857 and June 1858. Ives was in command of a U.S. Army expedition whose mission was to explore the region of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, and to establish the limit of navigation of the Colorado River. The correspondence is largely personal in nature, however, it is a useful supplement to the official report documenting the voyage, "Report upon the Colorado River of the West; Explored in 1857-1858."
The Lorenzo Romans Papers (1875-1965) are comprised of photographs, newspaper clippings, a family photograph album, a diary, a diploma, and related ephemera. The materials were owned by Lorenzo Romans, a California real estate developer who moved to Las Vegas late in life after a short visit to Helen Stewart's Las Vegas Rancho in 1894.
The Thomas J. Osborne Photograph Collection (approximately 1890-1930) consists of black-and-white photographic prints, negatives, and slides. Images depict the family of Thomas J. Osborne, his law office, the family home, and views of the town of Pioche, Nevada and surrounding areas. Several images depict local mines and unidentified mine workers.
The Geneva Stark Merwin Photograph Collection features photographic prints and negatives of locations throughout Pahrump, Nevada between 1941 and 1942. Primary locations include a Pahrump school and Pahrump Ranch, as well as locations in local fields and mountains. The photographs capture candid scenes of people walking to school and feeding animals.
The Ernest Mitchell Pratt Photographs (approximately 1932-1936) consist of black-and-white photographic prints, signed and unsigned, taken by Pratt while Hoover Dam was under construction. Many prints are signed and mounted, and two are noted as award-winning photographs shown at the Annual International Salon of Camera Pictorialists in Los Angeles, California. There are additional working prints included alongside the final prints for most of the scenes. Also included in the collection is one small photograph of Pratt. This collection was formerly known as the Price Photograph Collection.
The Paul May Photograph Collection (1969) consists of black-and-white and color photographic prints. The images primarily depict Nevada Assemblyman Paul May alongside Nevadan senators and congressmen, including Senator Paul Laxalt. Other images are portraits of May.
The Clarence Ray Photograph Collection (approximately 1930-1960) consists of black-and-white photographic prints and negatives of Clarence Ray, casino scenes of people playing table games, and images of Ray with black activists in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Wayne Cronister Photograph Collection depicts towns in Southern Nevada from 1905 to 1950. The photographs primarily depict Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nevada and the construction of the Hoover (Boulder) Dam on the Colorado River. The photographs also include the Union Pacific Railroad Depot in Las Vegas, Nevada, the abandoned town of Rhyolite, Nevada, and a mining camp in El Dorado Canyon.
The Murl Emery Photograph Collection consists of seventeen black-and-white photographic reprints of ferries and recreational activities near Searchlight, Nevada on the Colorado River taken from approximately 1910 to 1946, and reprinted from approximately 1970 to 2004.
The William Fulton Papers (1993-1996) contains Fulton's research files used in writing his book, The Reluctant Metropolis: the Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles. The materials primarily consist of newspaper clippings that cover stories on the growth of Los Angeles residents moving to Las Vegas, Nevada, water, economic development, and the master planned community of Summerlin. The majority of newspaper clippings are from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun. The materials also include reports on economic and housing development in Southern Nevada as well as drafts of the book's Chapter 12, "Cloning Los Angeles" which discusses the growth of Las Vegas throughout the 1980s and 1990s.