The Six Companies, Inc. Hoover Dam Photograph Collection (1931-1935), consists of approximately 400 black-and-white photographic prints contained in two photograph albums and an additional twenty-one loose black-and-white photographic prints with ten corresponding photographic negatives.
The Robert Woodruff Papers (1927-2001) are comprised of materials documenting Woodruff’s career and family life in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, as well as his travels around the United States and abroad. Materials include newspaper clippings, photographic prints and transparencies, personal correspondence, and publications such as Las Vegas tourist brochures and pamphlets dating from the 1930s and 1940s. Visual materials include portraits, city scenes, and landscapes throughout Nevada and the United States, as well as some photographs of international travels.
The Barbara Raben Collection on the Las Vegas Jewish Community (1976-2018) is comprised of materials collected by Barbara Raben that document her personal life and her involvement with the Las Vegas, Nevada Jewish community, specifically the Hadassah Southern Nevada Chapter and the Jewish Family Service Agency (JFSA) of Clark County, Nevada. Hadassah and JFSA records consist of photographs and programs from events held by the organizations. Materials also document Raben's business, The Candy Factory, and her connections to the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning.
The Maurine and Fred Wilson and Dr. William S. Park Audiovisual Collection (approximately 1900s-1970s) consist of audiovisual material created by the Wilson and Park families. The materials depict the Park homes in Las Vegas, Nevada; Park and Wilson family members; outdoor activities and vacation trips to California, Colorado, and Mexico. The collection also documents early views of the Kiel Ranch in Las Vegas, Nevada, community parades and events, and early views of Las Vegas in the 1920s.
Oral history interview with Benilda Long Somes conducted by Vincent Long on November 29, 2021 for Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. Benilda discusses her life in Magalang, Philippines and her immigration to Saipan, part of the Northern Mariana Islands, as a young woman. She talks about meeting her partner, airman Robert Long, the birth of their son, and Robert's untimely death in an air crash less than a year later. Benilda shares how she and her child immigrated to the United States to be with family and their move to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2009.
Sandra Peña’s story begins in East Los Angeles, where she spent her first fifteen years with her parents (both from Michoacán, Mexico), and her younger sister. The father's managerial position at Master Products allowed the family to live rent-free in a company-owned house behind the main factory, because he collected the rents for the company's two other dwellings. In this interview, Peña recalls the family move to Porterville, in California's Central Valley, her return to Los Angeles at nineteen, and her work with Parson’s Dillingham, a contractor for the Metrolink rail system. She draws the link between the Los Angeles and Las Vegas construction communities by describing her husband's move to Las Vegas to find work; a chance Las Vegas encounter with a friend from Chino, California; her ability to gain employment in Las Vegas at Parson’s, a company that had joint ventured with Parson’s Dillingham, and her move from there to Richardson Construction, a local minority-owned company. As Peña says, "It's kind of all intermingled. Even if you go here and you go there, it's like everybody knows everybody." Throughout, Peña weaves her family story into the narrative as she describes her youth, the birth of her son, the illness and death of her father, and her family's participation in her current employment with Richardson. As she remembers the people, places, and events of her life, Peña speaks to the ways one woman of color built on her interstate construction connections and rose in a male-dominated industry.
Charles T. "Blackie" Hunt, born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1930, started accordion lessons at age five. He recounts learning from experienced musicians, then teaching others at age twelve because his teacher was drafted. He attended West Chester State Teachers College where, among other accomplishments, he put together a group with Nick Carlino as tenor sax player. Blackie shares detailed memories of the many musicians with whom he worked and toured. They played in venues that included Harrisburg, Toronto, and Montreal, and eventually were offered a booking at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. The group that Blackie worked with in Las Vegas, Tahoe, and Reno came up with the name "The Characters" (backward 'e'), and the show featured comedy and music. It was during this time that he met Lorraine (stage name Lauri Perry), who had her own group. They were married after a couple of years and Lauri joined The Characters. Blackie and Lorraine Hunt opened Blackie's Bar on Tropicana and Eastern Avenues in the seventies. He talks about the jazz sessions that took place and the musicians who sat in on them, and how he and Lorraine eventually decided to bow out of show business themselves. The Hunts went on to open the Bootlegger, a restaurant/piano bar on Las Vegas Boulevard. They started a little comedy/music session called "Off the Cuff', in which local or touring musicians, comedians, and singers often participate. Blackie and Lorraine have been part of the vibrant history of Las Vegas and the state of Nevada for many years, and continue to make their home here.
Whenever Paul Huffey drives through John S. Park Neighborhood he visualizes his youth and the times he spent with his childhood friend Michael Mack, who joined in this interview. Together they reminisced about their teen years in the 1950s and living in John S. Park Neighborhood. Paul's first home was Normandie Court, the first authentic motel in Las Vegas. In 1947, Paul's father purchased a lot on Paseo Park and built a home for his wife and only child. He describes life in that home as idyllic: no war or unemployment issues, a time when the Strip was "meaningless" unless you had a parent working there. An era when mothers, at least in his neighborhood, were stay-at-home moms and children freely roamed on their bicycles. Of their teen years, Paul and Michael recall their hi-jinks, discovering beer, and admiring pretty girls. In 1956, he graduated from Las Vegas High School, enlisted in the U. S. Army Reserve and enrolled in University of Nevada Reno. He taught history at Basic High School in Henderson for nine years.
On March 5, 1980, collector Robbin McLaurin interviews three members of the Jones family, Willie, James, and Jamet Jones (born 1923, 1920, and 1961, respectively) in the Jones home. Mr. and Mrs. Jones were born in Forest, Mississippi, and relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, for employment related purposes. This interview covers Las Vegas, past and present.