Search Results
Gary Guy Wilson Architectural Drawings
Identifier
Abstract
The collection is comprised of drawings (1965-1996) completed by American architect Gary Guy Wilson and/or his architectural firm, Gary Guy Wilson, AIA, Architect Studios and contains 613 sets of drawings from over 250 different projects. Primarily focused on the Las Vegas, Nevada area, the materials feature hand-drawn architectural drawings, ranging from preliminary sketches to construction documents, and a number of printed computer aided drawings. The drawings also contain work from a number of consultants, engineers, and other architects who collaborated on the development of the various projects. The drawings include: commercial and professional buildings of varying scales, such as convenience stores, hotels, casinos, shopping centers, and office developments; schools; military buildings at both Nellis and Indian Springs Air Force Bases; multi-family residential developments; and custom single-family homes located throughout the Southwest (United States).
Archival Collection
Richard Ronzone Photographs
Identifier
Abstract
The Richard Ronzone Photographs depict Las Vegas, Nevada storeowner and politician Richard “Dick” Ronzone and his family from 1920 to 1989 and 2001. The photographs primarily depict Ronzone at Ronzone’s Store in Las Vegas, at events with politicians such as Nevada Governor Paul Laxalt, or at the Las Vegas Valley Water District. The photographs also depict Ronzone during his service with the Nevada National Guard; portraits of Ronzone, his wife Ann Roeth Ronzone, and his mother Bertha Ronzone; and events during Ronzone’s tenure as a Clark County Commissioner from 1972 to 1980.
Archival Collection
Ffolliott "Fluff" LeCoque Papers
Identifier
Abstract
Collection is comprised of Ffolliott "Fluff" LeCoque's professional and personal papers (1879-2015), documenting her life and career working as a dancer and later as company manager for Las Vegas entertainment productions; most notably the long-running Jubilee! show produced by Donn Arden for the MGM Grand and Bally's Hotel-Casinos. Materials include personal letters, drawings, professional papers, newspaper clippings, photographs, magazines, commericially produced sheet music, and related ephemera.
Archival Collection
Wilbur and Toni Clark Papers
Identifier
Abstract
The Wilbur and Toni Clark Papers date from 1944 to 1991, with the bulk from 1953 to 1963 and document the lives of Wilbur and Toni Clark in Las Vegas, Nevada and the development of the Desert Inn Hotel and Casino. The collection includes correspondence from Wilbur Clark to those he identified as important individuals including government officials and celebrities. It also includes materials related to Clark’s plan of building luxury apartments near the Desert Inn, and newspaper clippings and scrapbooks about the Clarks and the Desert Inn. The collection contains some audiovisual materials including Wilbur and Toni Clark's home movies, news footage, and film footage of Las Vegas, Nevada and the Desert Inn.
Archival Collection
Transcript of interview with Dorothy George by Claytee White, October 13, 2003
Date
Archival Collection
Description
After serving as a nurse in World War II in Hawaii, Okinawa and Japan, Dorothy returned home to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. She experienced a particularly bad winter and she set out for California but stopped in Las Vegas to visit the family of her traveling companion, a girlfriend from her home town. The girlfriend returned to Wisconsin and George applied for a nursing license and got it within three days. She never left. Dorothy met her husband while working the night shift at Clark County Hospital. He would come in regularly to assist his patients in the births of their babies. Their occupations and their service in World War II drew them together in a marriage that has lasted over fifty years. From 1949 to this interview in 2003, Dorothy George has seen Las Vegas grow from a town that she loved to a metropolitan area that is no longer as friendly. She reminisces about the Heldorado parades, family picnics at Mount Charleston, watching the cloud formed by the atomic bomb tests, raising six successful children, leading a Girl Scout Troop, and working in organizations to improve the social and civic life of Las Vegas.
Text
Progress report of investigations of irrigation problems of Lower Moapa Valley, November 1944
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Report of the Lower Moapa Valley soil and water resources.
Text
Meeting minutes for Consolidated Student Senate, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, January 18, 1983
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Text
Photographs of Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas (Nev.), 2002
Date
Archival Collection
Description
Site name: Welcome to Las Vegas neon sign
Site address: 5200 S Las Vegas Blvd
Sign owner: YESCO
Sign details: The sign sits as a welcome to travelers entering the Las Vegas experience via Las Vegas Blvd The sign itself resides in the middle of traffic median directly in the middle of the road.
Sign condition: Structure 5 Surface 5 Lighting 5
Sign form: Pylon
Sign-specific description: The sign itself is a classic roadside pole design which faces North/South. It is double backed, internally lit with a border of yellow incandescent bulbs along the flat edge of its width. Across the top of the sign seven white neon circles house separate red neon letters which form the word welcome. Crowning the sign at the very peak, above the word welcome, is a seven pointed neon star comprised of orange and yellow neon. The cabinet itself is faced with translucent white plastic and treated with blue and red painted text. The South side of the sign reads with the Neon welcome word then in blue painted text "To Fabulous" in a 50's style text reminiscent of that used in the Last Frontier property, and cursive. The Words "Las Vegas" are spelled in all caps, in red block text. And below that in smaller blue text the word "Nevada" are spelled in all caps block text.
Sign - type of display: Neon; Incandescent; Backlit
Sign - media: Steel; Plastic
Sign - non-neon treatments: Graphics; Paint
Sign animation: chasing, flashing
Sign environment: The famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign sits alone at the South end of the strip and is often the very first sign a traveler encounters when entering the strip. It casts a surprisingly powerful glow over the barren median which it stands. It stands as a gateway to the extravaganza that is Las Vegas. When leaving the main drag headed south the sign has an equal effect of being a lone gateway in and out of the Strip.
Sign manufacturer: YESCO
Sign designer: Betty Willis
Sign - date of installation: 1959
Sign - thematic influences: Although it has no specific theme, it is from a specific period in Las Vegas History. It is the quintessential roadside pylon design. With an exposed steel center pole double backed marquee it is reminiscent of the common design of the roadside motor inn.
Sign - artistic significance: This sign has become perhaps the most copied icon of Las Vegas, as it was never copyrighted. It is a ubiquitous symbol of the city.
Surveyor: Joshua Cannaday
Survey - date completed: 2002
Sign keywords: Chasing; Flashing; Pylon; Neon; Incandescent; Backlit; Steel; Plastic; Paint; Graphics
Mixed Content
Transcript of interview with Sandra Peña by Lada Mead and Stefani Evans, March 27, 2017
Date
Archival Collection
Description
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.
Text