The Anna and Jo Pitney Personal Papers are comprised of materials documenting the lives of Anna J. Pitney and her wife, Jo Pitney, a long-time Las Vegas lesbian couple. They were together since 1955 and traveled together often. The collectionIt includes correspondence, news clippings, photographs and photograph albums, travel notes, and a memoir of their lives written by Jo.
Archival Collection
Oral history interviews with Kevin M. Kelly conducted by Dennis McBride on September 08 and 22; and November 10, 2000 for the Las Vegas Gay Archives Oral History Project. In the interviews, Kelly talks about his family and early life in Boston, Massachusetts with a focus on his Catholic upbringing. He recalls his law education, serving in the United States Army during the Vietnam War for eleven years, and discovering his sexuality in 1966 while working in the Boston City Hospital. Kelly then describes being discharged from the military due to allegations of being gay, and his family's reaction. He then recalls moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1978, where he was involved in a robbery and shooting incident with a male sex worker in 1982. Kelly goes on to recall the trial that proceed the incident and how it publicly outed him. He details how he was charged with felony sodomy and ultimately lost his job as a result of the trial. Finally, he talks about serving on a task force to investigate bias in Nevada's court system in 1992 and being honored in 1994 by the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada for his work.
Archival Collection
The Dennis McBride Photograph Collection (approximately 1904-2018) contains over 5,000 individual photographic prints, negatives, digital images, and postcards that depict various events, people, and locations, across southern Nevada, particularly from the 1960s to the 1990s. The postcards depict a large number of hotels and casinos in cities throughout Nevada including Las Vegas, Tahoe, Reno, and Boulder City. The photographs depict a variety of events held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives, local branches of the Las Vegas Public Library, and local community spaces and stores. The collection also includes a detailed list of photographs from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) events taking place across Las Vegas from 1996 to 2018 including Pride parades, social gatherings in bars and nightclubs, holiday celebrations, and political marches and demonstrations.
Archival Collection
The materials consist of monthly newsletters dated from September 1984 to August 1985 published by the National Association of Lesbians & Gays, a non-profit corporation based in Reno, Nevada. The newsletters in this collection are titled Gay Life, beginning with the inaugural issue in September 1984. The collecton includes one issue of the newsletter after its name was changed to Stonewall Voice! in August 1985.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Laura Sussman and Wendy Kraft conducted by Barbara Tabach on February 17, 2016 for the Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project. Sussman and Kraft talk about being business partners in Kraft-Sussman Funeral Home, which caters to the Jewish community. They also talk about the local LGBT community as a lesbian couple.
Archival Collection
The Las Vegas, Nevada Women's Softball Collection (1951-1952) contains photographic prints and negatives depicting a southern Nevada women's softball team. The team was sponsored by Wilson's Texaco Station in Boulder City, Nevada, and the women played in regional games in both southern California and southern Nevada. Photographs in the collection show the team practicing at Peterson Field in Boulder City, and celebrating and spending time together at the Mt. Charleston Lodge. The collection also contains copies of personal accounts written by team member Orpha Alveta Bowman (McBride), who recalls the prejudice some of the lesbian members faced from local community members. The originals of these handwritten accounts are held in MS-01099.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Ellen DeLand conducted by Dennis McBride on January 19 and 20, 1996 for the Las Vegas Gay Archives Oral History Project.
Archival Collection