Patrick “Pat” Anthony McCarran (1876-1954) was a United States senator who was significant in Nevada’s politics for more than fifty years. He was a supporter of the aviation industry as well, lobbying for the construction of the Nellis Air Force Base. McCarran was one of the few Democrats who opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was also known to be a passionate anti-Communist.
The Franklin M. Murphy Geological Papers (1919-1956) contain surveys, lectures, reports, correspondence, newspaper clippings, bulletins, maps, and dam site investigations from six different states in the American west. Also included are mining projects, photographs, scrapbooks, albums, school papers, and Murphy's thesis.