When Mr. Elmer Hilsinger arrived from the Los Angeles area in 1942, to work as a Refractory Inspector in the Engineering Department at Basic Magnesium Incorporated (BMI), little did he know the town site would grow to be known as Henderson, Nevadain a few short decades. Mr. Hilsinger’s oral history provides a glimpse of the work being done by women at BMI, including women working as chemists, truck drivers, and secretaries. His words attest to the strong work ethic demonstrated by women at the plant during the “war work” period. Through Mr. Hilsinger’s story, we are also provided with an account of what daily life was like for a married couple, including Mr. Hilsinger’s life with his wife who worked as a waitress at Anderson Camp. In addition, Mr. Hilsinger’s oral history touches on the evolution of safety rules within the plant, the transition from the American Federation of Labor Union to the Congress of Industrial Organizations Union, and the role prostitution played during the tim
The Blanche Zucker-Bozarth Papers document education advocate Blanche Zucker-Bozarth's volunteer work and activism in libraries, children's advocacy, and women’s clubs in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1963 to 2005. The collection includes records, newspaper clippings, and photographs from her political activism and fundraising initiatives in Southern Nevada. The collection also includes buttons, video tapes, and journal articles on child abuse prevention, as well as records from Zucker-Bozarth's term as president of the Mesquite Club in the 1980s.
The Kiel Family Photographs (approximately 1854-1989) contains glass plate negatives of members of the Kiel and George families, as well as neighbors from the Stewart and Wilson ranches and ranch workers. The majority of the photographs were taken at the Kiel Ranch site in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The collection consists of the original glass plate negatives, as well as photographic print and negative duplicates made using the originals.
The Nevada Desert Experience Records (1951-2009) are comprised of files from the anti-nuclear organization, the Nevada Desert Experience (NDE), as well as its predecessor, the Sagebrush Alliance, and those of earlier unincorporated protests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). Materials include board of directors meeting minutes, financial records, scrapbooks, personnel records, event speeches, correspondence, newspaper clippings, cartoons and other artwork, newsletters, brochures, fliers, research files on nuclear issues and other anti-nuclear organizations, and congressional testimony. The records also contain audiovisual materials, photographic prints and slides, screenplays, manuscripts, and newspapers related to the NDE's media efforts.
Interviewed by Nathalie Martinez. Larry Mason is an Arizona native that moved to Las Vegas as a Higher Education Administrator. He was born in Tuscon, Arizona, but grew up mostly in East Los Angeles and his "Gramitas" ranch in Sonora, Mexico. He has a history in athletics as a basketball player in his upbringing which brought him to play at the New Mexico Highlands University and the European League. Earning a Masters in Education, Larry Mason came to Las Vegas to become the first Latino Director of Admissions at UNLV, first Latino President of the Board of Education, and first Latino Vice President of the Board of Education in the Clark County School District. He launched an incredible amount of movements within the educational field in Las Vegas including (but not limited to): the Mariachi program, the magnet school program, and the growth of the Diversity Division within the NSHE. Some of his greatest supporters and allies included Senator Harry Reid, John Lujan and Tom Rodriguez. Mason continues to work as a community leader for minority representation in STEM fields, as a board member for the Nevada STEM Coalition.