The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 Las Vegas, Nevada Photographs document various activities of the Culinary Union, from the 1950s to 2006, with the bulk of the material documenting the 1990s. Prominently featured in the collection are various strikes, pickets, marches, parades, rallies, and demonstrations from the late 1980s to early 2000s. A large portion of these photographs documents the Frontier Strike of the 1990s. Also included are photographs of press conferences, political rallies, internal committee meetings, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (H.E.R.E.) conventions, and various social events. Materials contain photographic prints, photographic negatives, and a small number of slides.
Archival Collection
From the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Theta Theta Omega Chapter Records (MS-01014) -- Chapter records file.
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The Rebel Yell and cultural identity at UNLV
The UNLV student newspaper, like the university itself, has gone through many changes not least, its
name. When the paper made its debut in 1955, what was to become UNLV was the Southern Regional
Division of the University of Nevada, in Reno, popularly known as Nevada Southern. The newspaper,
reflecting its identity with the southern part of the state as well as its ongoing opposition to the
northern-centric bias of the State Legislature in Carson City and the administration of the University of
Nevada in Reno, adopted the name “Rebel Yell” and flew a Confederate flag on its mast head. The
fledgling university took to its identity as “Rebels” which, in fact, continues as a brand for the university
and its students to this day. While administrators and students would later deny any conscious or
intended association of these historical Confederate symbols with the southern Confederacy, slavery,
and racism, they would, nonetheless cause embarrassment in the future when Black (and White)
students began to express their indignation with these symbols and demand that the university change
its image.
In 1962 the most flagrant symbol, the Confederate flag, was removed from the masthead to be replaced
by the only marginally less problematic “Beauregard” figure, a Disneyesque cartoon hound dog in a
Confederate uniform. In 1969 in the wake a national civil rights protests, Beauregard was yanked from
the masthead. In 1970 the student senate, the “Confederated Students” (which would change its name
to “Consolidated Students” in 1973) instituted a “Rebel Name-change committee” charged with coming
up with alternative names. The next year in 1971 the students voted to retain their nickname, the
Rebels, by which their sports teams had traditionally been known, but the newspaper decided to change
its name from the Rebel Yell to The Yell, but affirming on its front page “We’re Still Rebels”. In 1973
when the student senate changed its name, the students again rejected changing the Rebels nick-name.
Only in 1975 was Beauregard officially removed as the university mascot.
In 1982 artist Mike Smith created a new UNLV mascot, the “Hey Reb” trail-blazing pathfinder, in western
frontier garb, with mustachios that rendered him a look-alike for the cartoon character Yosemite Sam. In
1983 the Yell quietly resumed its old title Rebel Yell (briefly the Yellin Rebel) which persisted until 2016,
when, after months of deliberation and renewed calls to rebrand the university the Rebel Yell became
the Scarlet & Gray Free Press, adopting the school colors. According to then-Editor-in-chief Bianca Cseke
“a Confederate battle cry isn’t a great name for a newspaper.”
Essay Contributed by Peter Michel
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Oral history interview with Mirtha Rojas conducted by Marcela Rodriguez-Campo on December 6, 2018 the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada Oral History Project. Mirtha talks about her artistic upbringing in Cuba and how she immigrated to the Florida with her brother. She talks about relocating to Las Vegas in 2000, her membership with the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, and her employment as a guest room attendant and shop steward at the Aria Hotel and Casino.
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From the Syphus-Bunker Papers (MS-00169). The folder contains documents containing the Syphus Family Group Record.
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Oral history interview with Fred Goldberg conducted by Barbara Tabach on December 03, 2017 for the Remembering 1 October Oral History Project. In this interview, Fred Goldberg shares his experience of flying to Las Vegas, Nevada on October 1, 2017 while the mass shooting occurred on the Strip as well as his eventual arrival in Las Vegas. He describes the changes in travel after the shooting, including the plane's diverted course due to the McCarran airport lockdown and the enforced luggage check at his hotel in Las Vegas. Goldberg discusses his confusion regarding what had happened and his discovery of the tragic events that had occurred.
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On February 28th, 1977, collector Clyde C. Caldwell interviewed Patrick P. Keenan (born January 24th, 1905 in New York) at his house in Henderson, Nevada. Mr. Keenan discusses Las Vegas and Henderson in the 1950s. He also speaks about working on the Strip and the changes he has seen in Las Vegas over time.
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The Charles S. Sprague and Benjamin Gill Papers on Nevada Mining (1904-1925) are comprised of various records from the mining companies owned and operated by businessmen Charles S. Sprague and Benjamin Gill who were active in the central Nevada boomtowns of Goldfield and Tonopah in the early twentieth century. Documents include correspondence, receipts and invoices, detailed records and copies of government legislative bills relating to the mining industry, and other business correspondence. Sprague's collection consists of his mining business correspondence dating from 1906 to 1925. Gill's papers are comprised of his business correspondence from 1916 to 1922.
Archival Collection