The Ida Brewington Pittman Photographs contain photographs of Ida Brewington Pittman and her husband, Nevada Governor Vail Pittman, from 1896 to 1976. The photographs primarily depict Governor Pittman at political events, parades, celebrations, and events. The photographs include Governor Pittman meeting with politicians like President Harry S. Truman, U.S. Senator from Nevada Pat McCarran, Las Vegas, Nevada mayor Ernie Cragin, California Governor Earl Warren, Utah Governor J. Bracken Lee, Oregon Governor Earl Snell, and Wyoming Governor Lester C. Hunt. The photographs also depict the Pittman and Brewington families, the Governor’s Mansion in Carson City, Nevada, the Pittman home in Ely, Nevada, and the Pittmans travelling in other countries.
The Alice Key Papers (1936-2004) consist of documents detailing Alice Key’s life and work in the African American community, historic preservation, and labor relations in Las Vegas, Nevada. Included in the collection are awards and certificates documenting Key’s achievements, invitations and programs to events, political and civic correspondence, and magazine and newspaper articles both about Key and written by her. The collection also contains photographs.
Oral history interview with Vida Chan Lin conducted by Kristel Peralta, Cecilia Winchell, and Vanessa Concepcion on May 17, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project.
Vida Chan Lin discusses her childhood growing up in San Francisco and her parents' immigration from China to the United States through Chile. She talks about working in her parents' Chinese restaurant throughout her youth and her later move to Las Vegas to assist her sister and brother-in-law. She recalls becoming an insurance agency owner and how she worked to help the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community after the 2008 housing crisis. Lin shares her decades-long mission to find community within Las Vegas, joining every AAPI group the city had to offer until later developing her own; Lin created the Asian Community Development Council (ACDC) in 2015 and was also formerly President of the Asian Chamber of Commerce. The ACDC was developed to provide community support and assistance with voter registrations in Las Vegas. Lin discusses the additional services the ACDC has undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic, including helping with the census, distributing food, volunteering at vaccine clinics, and purchasing laptops for Clark County School District students to assist with in-home learning efforts.
Don Cunningham, Jazz musician and Las Vegas resident was born in 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri. As a child he was heavily influenced by blues and jazz musicians such as BB King, Count Basie, and Ella Fitzgerald. Growing up in St. Louis Cunningham worked shining shoes and cleaning steps going to white neighborhoods working inside taverns. He received saxophone lessons from a family friend and joined the band attending a segregated high school.