Oral history interview with Sonia Rivelli Jiavis conducted by Nathalie Martinez and Barbara Tabach on March 6, 2019 for the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. In this interview, Rivelli discusses her life including the evolution of her cultural background and her role in business. She describes how her parents moved to Brazil from Italy and how she has come to value her cultural roots in Brazil, Italy, and the United States. She mentions that travel was a major part of her life and that she has been to North America, South America, and Europe. One of Rivelli’s accomplishments in her career was helping the development of the Brazilian community in Las Vegas, Nevada. She also states that she created the Aqua Diva Global water purification company in hopes of providing more safe and clean water to all people.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Catherine Buchanan conducted by Claytee D. White on March 26, 1997 as part of the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, Buchanan speaks at length about her child and young adulthood in Louisiana and explains how she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1971. She discusses her first job as a maid at the Landmark Hotel and Casino and how she applied to the Teamsters Union to move into front desk work in the hotels, which led to a job at the Sahara Hotel and Casino. She then talks about discrimination and the small percentage of African Americans in the more "visible" jobs at the hotels.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Joyce Bush conducted by Claytee D. White on September 20, 1995 for the UNLV University Libraries Oral History Collection. In this interview, Bush discusses the formation of her non-profit organization, International Youth for Christ Choir. She explains that she developed the idea in 1994, based on the "True Love Waits" abstinence program of the Baptist Church. She explains how the organization was formed, the process of building a board of directors, ideas about fundraising, publicity, and soliciting donations, attracting youth to the organization, her hopes for the future of the organization, and the reasons corporate sponsorship was unlikely because they tend not to support religious groups.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Cynthia Bunch conducted by Gayle Allen for the KDWN Radio Lifelines Oral History Interviews on Nursing.
This interview is undated but likely took place between 1988 and 1999, the time span that "Lifelines with Gayle Allen" was taped by KDWN Radio.
Cynthia Bunch, a registered nurse and Nevada Nurses Association member, discusses Bill AB-156 and the importance of its passage in Congress. The bill requested better regulations across the United States for quality patient care under "Managed Care" insurance coverage. Bunch talks about consumer care rights and the types of requests patients can and should make when they are dissatisfied with their insurance-provided quality of care.
Archival Collection
Building Las Vegas Summer Speaker Series conducted by Claytee D. White and Stefani Evans on June 30, 2017, August 13, 2017, and September 17, 2017 for the Building Las Vegas Oral History Project. Panel 1: Reimagining Downtown: This panel of experts examined past and present plans for the redevelopment of Downtown Las Vegas as a tourist and entertainment destination and as an urban residential neighborhood. Panel 2: A Woman's Place Is...: This panel of high-achieving women shared their experiences in shaping the growth and development of Las Vegas. Panel 3: Turning the Tide: Water In The Desert: Leaders discussed how the supply, quality, and management of water has affected the Southern Nevada region’s growth and development.
Archival Collection
Oral history panel composed of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) students Lisa McAllister, Larry Sampson, John Grygo, and Ashley Smith along with community narrators Jerrie Merritt, Geraldine Kirk Hughes, Keith Brantley, and Hannah Brown, moderated by Julia Lee and Claytee White on March 30, 2016 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: A Collaborative Oral History Project. The group discusses working with each other during the collection of oral histories for the project, the value of the interchange for both narrator and interviewer, the value of oral histories as repositories of individual and collective memory, and related stories about their experiences.
Archival Collection
The Robin Leach Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Audiovisual Collection (1984-1999) is comprised of 25 boxes of VHS tapes that contain recordings of various television shows produced and hosted by Robin Leach. Primarily, they consist of episode tapings of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (1984-1999), which showcased wealthy lifestyles and featured hundreds of notable guests, such as Princess Diana, Liberace, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, and Audrey Hepburn. Additionally, there are tapes from Lifestyles' two spinoff shows, Runaway With the Rich and Famous (1991-1998) and Fame, Fortune, and Romance (1986-1987). Also included are tapes from the series Start of Something Big (1985-1986) and Gourmet Getaways (1997-1998), as well as a number of home videos, episode previews, and television specials.
Archival Collection
Oral history interview with Geraldine Kirk-Hughes conducted by Claytee D. White on April 28, 2011 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project.
In this interview, Geraldine Kirk-Hughes discusses her educational background, previous occupations, and her decision to attend law school in Reno, Nevada in 1984. Kirk-Hughes shares details of passing the bar exam in 1988, opening her one-woman law firm shortly thereafter, and her affiliation with the National Bar Association (NBA). She recalls how she met Charles Kellar, various cases she represented, and her experiences with racism both directed at herself and her clients of color.
Archival Collection
The Q. B. Bush Papers are comprised of Q. B. Bush's personal papers dating from 1957 to 2018 and document Bush's work in Westside Las Vegas, Nevada casinos including the Moulin Rouge, Town Tavern, and the El Morocco. The collection also documents Bush's involvement with the Dealers Security Association and the association's effort to provide better working conditions for African American casino employees. Included are both original photographs and copies of photographs that document the African American casinos where Bush worked, as well as the Bush family at various events.
Archival Collection
The Las Vegas Rotary Club Records (1981-2022) contain award certificates, club directories and rosters, Las Vegas Rotary publications, commemorative material including a 20-foot by 34-foot velvet curtain. The collection also contains plastic and metal Rotary Club signs from across the United States and international locations, material from a Rotary Club in Africa, and a digital video segment made in 2013 about the history of the Las Vegas Rotary.
Archival Collection