Arthur G. Grant Photograph Collection (approximately 1950-1965) consists of 120mm and 35mm color photographic slides taken in the mid-1950s in and around Las Vegas, Nevada. Images depict Arthur G. Grant's home life, the Fortune Club business on Fremont Street, general downtown, Helldorado Parade, and a Mount Charleston picnic. The collection also contains images of Lake Mead boat races including an appearance by Donald Campbell and his water speed world record-setting jet powered boat, Bluebird.
The Sherwin “Scoop” Garside Photographs contain photographs from journalist and photographer “Scoop” Garside from 1907 to 1969. The photographs primarily depict events and buildings in Southern Nevada, including construction of the Hoover (Boulder) Dam, the Helldorado Parade in Las Vegas, Nevada, hotels and casinos, schools, and social events. The photographs also depict the Garside Family, including Las Vegas Review-Journal owner Frank Garside, “Scoop” Garside’s father.
The Nevada Women’s Conference Photograph Collection depicts the statewide women’s conference held in June 1977 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The photographs include keynote speaker Gloria Steinem, event organizers, workshops, volunteers, and musical performances.
The Rodney Sumpter Papers on Doe v. Bryan contain the legal files of the lawyer Rodney Sumpter, who represented the appellants in the Nevada District Court case Doe v. Bryan (1985) and subsequent appeal in the Nevada State Supreme Court in 1986. Doe v. Bryan challenged one of Nevada's sodomy laws (NRS 201.190), and the collection contains affidavits, motion requests, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and memoranda regarding the case.
The Perry Kaufman Papers (1930-1974) are comprised of research material gathered by Kaufman for his doctoral dissertation, "The Best City of Them All: A History of Las Vegas, 1930-1960." Kaufman's research focused on the Las Vegas, Nevada Chamber of Commerce's role in promoting Las Vegas as a tourist destination. The collection primarily consists of newspaper clippings from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun. It also includes Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce minutes and publications, research on the history of Las Vegas, and Kaufman's notes and writings.
The Junior League of Las Vegas Photograph Collection contains photographic prints and negatives, as well as postcards of locations in and around Las Vegas, Nevada between approximately 1900 and 1980. Early photographs in the collection offer views of the Las Vegas townsite, buildings, railroads, the Las Vegas High School, Overland Hotel, Arizona Club, and residential areas. Other photographs during this time depict the Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam) construction and Death Valley, California. Later photographs show the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) campus, downtown Las Vegas, and the Las Vegas Strip.
The Edith Giles Barcus Family Photograph Collection (approximately 1878-1954) consists of black-and-white photographic prints and negatives, as well as postcards and photograph albums. The images depict locations in Nevada including Las Vegas, Goldfield, Searchlight, and Tonopah, in addition to locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Utah, and Mexico. Also included are images of family, friends, and associates of the Giles Barcus family. The albums contain photographs depicting the Giles family as they traveled through the southwest United States and Mexico, as well as postcards from prominent locations in the southwestern United States.
Anna Peltier, owner and founder of ARIA Landscape Architecture in Las Vegas, Nevada, is a transplanted farm girl and a musician. She was born in 1978 on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Escanaba, Michigan, where she and two brothers were the second generation to grow up on their parents’ (and formerly their grandparents’) farm. She studied music performance at Michigan State University but after discovering her love of landscape architecture early in her college career, she changed majors and earned her degree in landscape architecture. Moving to Las Vegas in 2007, she first worked for JW Zunino Landscape Architects. While with Zunino she did design work for Lorenzi Park and designed the award-winning Cactus Avenue Interchange. As ARIA’s principal designer, Anna designed Discovery Park in Pahrump, Nevada, and the USA Parkway between Lake Tahoe, California, and Reno, Nevada. In 2013, when Anna opened ARIA, she carefully chose the name of her business. First, for practical reasons she want
Minnesotan Don Laughlin landed far from the land of (more than) 10,000 lakes. His office 90 miles south of Las Vegas in the eponymous town of Laughlin commands an unimpeded view of a very different landscape from that of his youth. Here, where the Colorado River flows south through one of its narrowest channels, Laughlin arrived in about 1966 and purchased what would become the Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino. The endeavor was so successful that the then-settlement of 10 to 15 people at that tiny spot on the river grew to be an unincorporated town housing more than 7,000 people in 2010. Today, Laughlin the man continues to promote and support Laughlin the town via flood control projects and infrastructure development. In this interview, Laughlin sits amid the antique slot machines in his office and enjoys the view as he recalls his childhood on the family farm in southern Minnesota, and talks about leaving the farm in the late 1940s for nearby Owatonna to do watchmaking and watch repairing while simultaneously running a slot machine and pinball parlor. After visiting Las Vegas on vacation, he arrived permanently in 1952 and bartended at the Thunderbird Hotel until he bought his own bar and restaurant in Downtown Las Vegas, which he named Laughlin’s Made Right Café. After selling the café, he bought the 101 Club in North Las Vegas. He began searching for a casino for a casino to buy, seeking only those located on the border of a state that did not allow gambling. When he found the small hotel/casino on the Colorado River he purchased it. He talks of building an airstrip across the street and making daily trips to Las Vegas to buy groceries, beer, and toilet paper-essentially, everything one would need to run a hotel, restaurant, and casino-sometimes making three trips in one day. He continues to own and manage his hotel/casino at the age of 85, and he is in his office every day, all day, seven days a week. He gave up flying last year because he claims he’s too old to pilot his own aircraft. So is especially advantageous that the town that bears his name can now supply almost everything that he and the Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino need.
Included in this oral history are reminiscences of Sonja Saltman's personal non-Jewish heritage in Austria, the importance of her grandmother in her life, and how she recalls becoming part of the Jewish community.
Sonja Saltman is a psychologist and philanthropist in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is executive director and co-founder of the Existential Humanistic Institute, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California that offers training in existential-humanistic therapy and theory. In 2003 Sonja and her husband Michael Saltman founded the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) William S. Boyd School of Law. The Saltman Center is focused on research, teaching, and public service related to "the advanced study of the nature of conflict and how to resolve it." A native of Austria, Sonja Saltman also serves as the Honorary Consul for Austria in Las Vegas. The Saltmans are involved with multiple charitable organizations and initiatives, both locally and abroad. Sonja Saltman has served on the boards of the Anti-Defamation League, Nevada Women's Philanthropy, and the Black Mountain Institute. Projects that the couple has supported include the rebuilding of homes and bridges is Bosnia, and Streetball Hafla, a basketball program to improve relations between Jewish and Arab teenagers in Israel. In 2014 Sonja and Michael Saltman were recognized as Distinguished Nevadans by the Nevada System of Higher Education. Included in this oral history are reminiscences of her personal non-Jewish heritage in Austrian, the importance of her grandmother in her life, and how she recalls becoming part of the Jewish community.