The Morrison Family Photograph Collection (1917-1933) consists of black-and-white and color photographic prints, negatives, and slides. The images primarily depict the Morrison family in Las Vegas, Nevada and the surrounding areas. Images portray youth activities in Nevada, including a local Boy Scouts Troop, Las Vegas High School students, Clark County High School students, as well as student activities at the University of Nevada, Reno. Also included are images of scenes around Las Vegas, including Mount Charleston, Little Falls, and the Colorado River prior to the Hoover Dam (Boulder Dam). Other images include Morrison family trips to California, Utah, Oregon, and Arizona.
The Frank D. Rathbun Photograph Collection dates from approximately 1915 to 1968 and consists primarily of black-and-white photographic prints and some corresponding negatives taken by Frank D. Rathbun and Michael Moen, who resurveyed the various sites Rathbun visited. The majority of the images depict petroglyphs located throughout the desert southwest in Nevada, California, and Arizona, as well as documentary images of the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the Hoover Dam transmission lines. Additional material includes postcards from areas Rathbun visited in California, Arizona, and Nevada.
The Bill Willard Photograph Collection depicts Las Vegas, Nevada, hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Valley, and Laughlin, Nevada from 1905 to 1919 and from 1940 to 1999. The photographs primarily depict hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, including the Sahara Hotel, Circus Circus Hotel and Casino, MGM Grand Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, Caesars Palace, Flamingo Hotel, and the Aladdin Hotel. The photographs also depict students at Nevada Southern University (predecessor of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas), the city of Las Vegas, industrial plants in Henderson and Apex, Nevada, and events in Laughlin, Nevada.
The Robert B. Griffith Photograph Collection (approximately 1950-1970) contains black-and-white and color photographic prints, negatives, and slides of Las Vegas, Nevada including Fremont Street, Helldorado parades, and hotel and casino properties along the Strip including the Sahara Hotel and Casino, the Flamingo Las Vegas, the El Rancho, the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino, and the Hotel Last Frontier. Also included are photographs of Lake Mead Recreation Area and tunnel drilling within and near the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada. Other Nevada locations outside of Las Vegas include Reno, Virginia City, and Crystal Bay, Nevada.
The Larry Fotine Music Collection (approximately 1940-2017) contains the complete library of composer, jazz band leader, and composer for television Larry Fotine. Materials include manuscript scores, printed sheet music of works by Fotine, ASCAP agreements and contracts, photographs, recordings (both published recordings and archival recordings), correspondence, and books by Fotine, and memorabilia. Fotine directed his own bands beginning in the 1930s, with many million-plus seller recordings. He composed over 300 songs, including collaboration with Duke Ellington (“I Ain’t Got Nothin’ but the Blues”), and arranged music for Sammy Kaye’s band (1940-1945), Blue Barron and Art Mooney (1945-1947), and Lawrence Welk (1958-1960). Fotine composed music for the "Buttons and Rusty" cartoon shows at the end of his career in the 1980s. There is an item-level inventory available upon request.