Oral history interview with Phillip L. Cook conducted by Richard Strahan on March 3, 1977 for the Ralph Roske Oral History Project on Early Las Vegas. Cook first talks about his parents' move to Nevada and discusses how the school system has changed over time. He then describes the first businesses that opened up in the Downtown and Strip areas of Las Vegas, Nevada before discussing prostitution, Block 16, and recreational activities available to youth. Cook also talks about the first television sets and telephone systems made available, and he moves on to talk about the prices of things such as movies and haircuts when he was younger. The interview then moves to discussions on the Old Ranch, racial discrimination, school integration, the crime rate, and the school system in Las Vegas.
The Hal Rothman Faculty Papers (approximately 1930-2006) are comprised primarily of research, teaching, and professional papers of Hal Rothman, professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The papers include Rothman's research notes, manuscript drafts, conference articles, lecture notes, audiovisual material for his book LBJ's Texas White House, newspaper clippings, and book draft. Material in this collection represents Rothman's time as a UNLV professor and as a graduate student at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.
The collection is comprised of architectural records (1947-2001) of American architect, Homer Rissman and the architectural firm, Rissman and Rissman Associates Ltd, a partnership of Homer Rissman and his brother Marshall. The collection includes 825 items from over 40 major projects and over 110 minor projects. The Rissmans' work represented in the collection focused on Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe, Nevada, Los Angeles, Southern California, and Arizona, with Homer's early career design work in Chicago, Illinois. The materials feature hand-drawn architectural drawings, ranging from pencil and ink on tracing paper preliminary sketches to ink on Mylar (TM) construction documents, and a number of artist’s renderings, used for presentations and promotional materials. The drawings also contain work from a number of consultants, engineers, and other architects who collaborated on the development of the various projects. The collection includes architectural drawings for: hotels, casinos, integrated casino resorts, office towers, multi-family residential developments, and custom single-family homes.
On the corner of Eastern and Stewart, inside the East Las Vegas Community Center, lies an oasis of creativity and art. The halls ring with the sound of harmonious music coming from the meeting rooms, where children move violin bows up and down in a synchronized motion. They stare with concentration at the music sheets in front of them. They gracefully play together and fill the empty halls with classical music. For most of them, they are the first in their family to learn how to play an instrument. Like many in their neighborhood, they are also first-generation Americans. The students are rehearsing for their recital with the Las Vegas Philharmonic at the Smith Center in a few weeks. In the back of the room there is a man gleaming with pride and joy. The Foundation to Assist Young Musicians (FAYM) provides the rehearsal space, violins, and music lessons at the community center and allows these children to flourish despite their economic, social, or racial background through, “Building
The Squires Family Photographs document the Squires Family and the development of the Las Vegas Valley in Nevada from approximately 1860 to 1980, with a bulk of the photographs depicting people and events from 1900 to 1950. The photographs depict the Euro-American settlement and growth of Las Vegas, Nevada; traveling and exploration of Southern Nevada and the Southwestern United States; the Hoover (Boulder) Dam and the Colorado River; clubs and social groups; and the Squires Family, especially prominent newspaper editor and publisher Charles Pember (C. P. or “Pop”) Squires, Delphine “Mom” Anderson Squires, and their children.
Oral history interview with Pom Fritz conducted by Kristel Peralta and Stefani Evans on June 8, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Pom talks about her family and upbringing in Udon Thani, Thailand and her immigration to the United States with her second husband, an American citizen, in 1972. She discusses living on Air Force bases in North Carolina and California before moving to Las Vegas and finding work at different hotels. Pom shares her experiences as a member, steward, and executive board representative of the Culinary Workers Union and what she recalls from the Frontier Strike. She also talks about her children and grandchildren, some of whom still live in Thailand.