This collection is unprocessed; see the access note for additional information. The Robert Scott Hooper Photographs (approximately 1960-2019) consist of photographic negatives, positives, prints, Polaroids, 16mm films, videos, business records, correspondence, drawings, and ephemera. The collection was created by prolific photographer Robert Scott Hooper and his longtime business partner and wife, Theresa Holmes. The couple's life and business was based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hooper's work focused on the female form, encompassing many areas of interest including sexual entertainment, modeling, pornography, and Las Vegas entertainment. Hooper was a contributing photographer with Playboy and Vegas Visitor magazines. Hooper also photographed many celebrities, Las Vegas production shows, notable events like hotel implosions, and the development of the Las Vegas Strip, including early time-lapse work on the Luxor Hotel and Casino and The Venetian. This collection also includes business records, model contracts, and correspondence.
The Fayle Family Papers (1895-1998) document the family's personal and business interests in Goodsprings, Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection contains mining documents, business records, and photographs from Leonard Fayle’s work with the Las Vegas Valley Water District, where he documented reservoirs, dams, and both abandoned and functioning mines. The photographs also include family members, vacations, and Southern Nevada fraternal organization pictures.
The John Wittwer Collection on Agriculture in Nevada (1898-1972) contains the professional papers and records of John Wittwer in his capacity as an Agricultural Extension agent for the University of Nevada from 1921 to 1954. The records are primarily annual reports containing text, photographs, newspaper clippings, and charts that provide a rich chronicle of the conditions of agriculture and ranching in southern Nevada from 1898 to 1972, with the bulk of the material dating from 1929 to 1955. These conditions span water issues, such as flood control and irrigation, to the general difficulties of sustaining agriculture and viable food production in a desert environment. The reports come from the Agricultural Experiment Stations in Clark and Lincoln counties and most contain both a statistical report and a narrative summary.
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.