The Las Vegas Archive Memorabilia and Promotional Materials (approximately 1960-2019) contains reproductions of photographs taken of historic landmarks around Las Vegas, Nevada and entertainers like Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Liberace performing in Las Vegas. The collection also contains digital photographs from 2008 of an airship displaying an advertisement for the M Resort Spa and Casino. There is also memorabilia from the MGM Grand Hotel including a gaming guide, decks of playing cards, and a commemorative drinking glass. The collection also includes several historic postcards depicting Las Vegas, political campaign buttons for local Nevada elections, and greeting cards from U.S. Representative Jim Santini.
Interview with Bess Rosenberg by Jerry Masini on November 12, 1975. In this interview, Rosenberg describes coming to Las Vegas in 1942, and the desert landscape. She gives an in-depth recollection of the first atomic test, and talks about different weather and the seasons in Las Vegas. Rosenberg describes several clubs and hotels around downtown and the recreation at Lake Mead and Mount Charleston.
Sandra Peña’s story begins in East Los Angeles, where she spent her first fifteen years with her parents (both from Michoacán, Mexico), and her younger sister. The father's managerial position at Master Products allowed the family to live rent-free in a company-owned house behind the main factory, because he collected the rents for the company's two other dwellings. In this interview, Peña recalls the family move to Porterville, in California's Central Valley, her return to Los Angeles at nineteen, and her work with Parson’s Dillingham, a contractor for the Metrolink rail system. She draws the link between the Los Angeles and Las Vegas construction communities by describing her husband's move to Las Vegas to find work; a chance Las Vegas encounter with a friend from Chino, California; her ability to gain employment in Las Vegas at Parson’s, a company that had joint ventured with Parson’s Dillingham, and her move from there to Richardson Construction, a local minority-owned company. As Peña says, "It's kind of all intermingled. Even if you go here and you go there, it's like everybody knows everybody." Throughout, Peña weaves her family story into the narrative as she describes her youth, the birth of her son, the illness and death of her father, and her family's participation in her current employment with Richardson. As she remembers the people, places, and events of her life, Peña speaks to the ways one woman of color built on her interstate construction connections and rose in a male-dominated industry.
The Walking Box Ranch Collection (1880-1979, bulk 1930-1945) contains digital images compiled by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Public Lands Institute. The collection consists of images of the Walking Box Ranch (Searchlight, Nevada), the Mojave Desert, and the Bell Family, consisting of American film stars Rex Bell, Clara Bow, and their children. There are also candid and professional photographs of Rex Bell and Clara Bow taken at various locations, some of which include friends and other family members, as well as a large number of unidentified film stills from Rex Bell movies. Images in this collection are from Bell family photograph albums and assorted prints, and were reformatted into digital images by the UNLV Public Lands Institute.