Oral history interview with Catherine Scherwenka conducted by Claytee D. White on February 28, 2020 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project. In this interview, Scherwenka recalls growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and later living in New York City. Scherwenka discusses travelling to India, and how her life changed after that trip. She talks about becoming a oneness meditator, her business, "Interviews Initiative", and coming to Las Vegas in the aftermath of 1 October to perform trauma meditation for first responders.
Archival Collection
UNLV University Libraries Photographs of the Response to the 1 October Shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada (2017-2019) are comprised of digital images captured to document the aftermath of the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. Following the October 1, 2017 killing of 58 people at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Las Vegas Strip, the Las Vegas community responded in a variety of ways. This collection of photographs document the impromptu memorial created at the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, the funeral of Officer Charleston Hartfield, and different ways the community and organizations have remembered the tragedy since 2017. The collection also documents the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden at 1015 S. Casino Center Boulevard, envisioned by activists and built by volunteers, to honor the victims and give family members and the community a place to gather to remember.
Archival Collection
The Jim P. Laurie Photographs of the MGM Grand and Las Vegas Hilton Fires (1980-1981) is comprised of six digitized photographs depicting the fire at the MGM Grand Hotel on Friday, November 21, 1980 and one image from the fire at the Las Vegas Hilton on February 11, 1981. Photographs were taken by Jim P. Laurie on the day of the fires at the MGM Grand and Las Vegas Hilton. Laurie is a photographer who used to work for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Archival Collection
The Clyde F. Merrick Photographic Slides (approximately 1971-1979) contain color photographic slides taken by Clyde F. Merrick, longtime resident of Las Vegas, Nevada. The majority of slides in this collection depict signs for different businesses around Las Vegas including the Las Vegas Strip and the Westside. Some of the businesses documented in this collection includes Fong's Garden, Leon's Shear Magic Beauty Salon, Lucas and Son's Antiques, Dick's Tricky Trikes, Mohan's Custom Tailors, the Twenty Grand Club, Owens TV Repair, and Caesars Palace. The collection also documents a variety of different types of businesses around Las Vegas including bars and nightclubs, beauty salons, car washes, gas stations, and restaurants. Merrick was also a car racing hobbyist and a number of slides in this collection depict what is presumed to be the Las Vegas Speedrome racetrack (later known the Las Vegas Motor Speedway). This collection also includes photographs of locations outside of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Hamed Ahmady conducted by Stefani Evans on March 22, 2023 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Interviewed by Stefani Evans. Culinary Union Local 226 organizer Hamed Ahmady recalls his childhood as the oldest of six children in Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan. As an child, he remembers hearing about the September 11, 2001 attack in New York while living in a Taliban-controlled city on a television connected to a concealed antenna that received signals from Uzbekistan. He recalls how, one month after he graduated high school, he became an translator for the U.S. Army, which he did for more than four years. He talks about securing his Special Immigrant Visa (SIV); landing in Los Angeles, California in 2013 and moving his family to the United States; and supporting his siblings and parents in Afghanistan. He also discusses relocating his family from California to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2018, finding a mosque community, and working with Culinary Union Local 226.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Lorraine Longhi conducted by Stefani Evans on March 31, 2023 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Longhi recalls growing up in Las Vegas, Nevada through eigth grade until she moved to Arizona. After graduating from high school and Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Longhi worked for the Arizona Republic newspaper, where she covered education and city government. Longhi identifes as mixed race and speaks of a Las Vegas childhood punctuated with annual visits to her father's family in Yonkers, New York, and her mother's Taiwanese family in Taipei. In this interview, she discusses favorite Taiwanese and Italian foods she remembers from her childhood, and memories of cultural festivals at Chinatown Plaza. She also recalls first experiencing questions about her personal identity in Arizona, remarking in retrospect on the diversity of her childhood in Las Vegas. Longhi returned to Las Vegas in March 2022 to begin work as assistant city editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Gai Phanalasy conducted by Jerwin Tiu, Cecilia Winchell, and Stefani Evans on April 7, 2023 for the Reflections: the Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Born on a Thailand refugee camp, Soukpaseut "Gai" Phanalasy describes his early upbringing in many different countries. Due to political tension, Phanalasy's family had to move from their native Laos to seek refugee in countries like Thailand, the Philippines, and eventually were granted asylum in Nashville, Tennessee in 1981. There, the Phanalasy family had to learn to assimilate to American culture, receiving aid from several religious organizations and the local Laos community. Phanalasy went on to attend Middle Tennessee State University, where he majored in mass communications and later decided to enter a broadcasting program where he interned at a radio station in Tennessee. His passion for photography began in 2007, and through a connection, he received a job offer from Fox 5 News in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since then, Gai has enjoyed a career in photography, including working as the state photographer in Carson City. After several projects, he returned to Las Vegas to work as the Multimedia Production Specialist for the City of Las Vegas where he has received many awards for his work. Gai emphasizes his love for his community, Las Vegas, and his passion of photography.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Donna Silva conducted by Claytee D. White on February 6, 2023 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Silva recalls her childhood living in Los Angeles, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Valdosta, Georgia; and Japan. When her family settled in Las Vegas, her family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but Silva later left the organization as a teenager. Throughout the interview, Silva recalls memories of the Rolling Stones, Steve Wynn, Elvis, and doing lighting work throughout the city as the first female to join the stagehand's union. Silva's work in the hotel/casino industry provides insight in work on the casino floor and behind the curtains of entertainment venues. She worked as a cocktail waitress, cigarette girl, and then backstage as a member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Her passion later turned to working with the Rape Crisis Center, where Silva has acquired training that allows her to go to hospitals to assist patients.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Ronald (Ron) Tomlin conducted by Claytee D. White on December 20, 2022 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Tomlin recalls growing up as child with his mother, Dorothy Dalton Tomlin, who started the Dotty Dee Dancers in 1952. Ron recalls spending much of his childhood with his grandmother while his mother toured the country with the Dotty Dee Dancers. In 1955, his father, Donald Sherwood Tomlin, opened a clothing store, Scottie's Clothing Store, in the Moulin Rouge shopping strip on the Westside of Las Vegas, where he sold the latest fashion trends to Black men. Ron traveled across country with his parents after high school, helped them run a small resort on the Russian River called the Bohemian Grove, and then began his photography career. Throughout his career as a photographer, he has photographed Mike Tyson, Naomi Campbell, and Elvis. Tomlin also talks about having a passion for dancing, like his mother.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Stanley Paher conducted by Claytee D. White on March 20, 2023 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Paher recalls his childhood, being born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. His family built and owned the Gateway Auto Court, now the Gateway Motel, at the corner of Las Vegas and Charleston Boulevards. After a brief period serving in the United States Navy and obtaining a bachelor's degree, Paher entered the master's program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Paher discusses his love of researching and writing about Nevada ghost towns, including writing his first book on the subject in 1970. He recalls seeing the physical book on the printing press, and talks about the profound impact that moment had on his life. It led to the founding of Nevada Publications, and his involvement with 59 Las Vegas and northern Nevada authors from 1970 through 2023. Paher has written fifteen books on Nevada, Arizona, and California.
Archival Collection