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Stanley Paher oral history interview
Oral history interviews with Stanley Paher conducted by Claytee D. White on March 20, 2023 and February 2, 2024 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Paher recalls his childhood, being born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. His family built and owned the Gateway Auto Court, now the Gateway Motel, at the corner of Las Vegas and Charleston Boulevards. After a brief period serving in the United States Navy and obtaining a bachelor's degree, Paher entered the master's program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Paher discusses his love of researching and writing about Nevada ghost towns, including writing his first book on the subject in 1970. He recalls seeing the physical book on the printing press, and talks about the profound impact that moment had on his life. It led to the founding of Nevada Publications, and his involvement with 59 Las Vegas and northern Nevada authors from 1970 through 2023. Paher has written fifteen books on Nevada, Arizona, and California.
Archival Collection
Hughes Aircraft Retirees Association Records
The Hughes Aircraft Retirees Association (HARA) Records (1940-2018) contain a variety of publications, organizational charts and technical reports, audiovisual materials, and photographs related to Hughes Aircraft Company and Hughes Electronics. These materials were gathered by members of the Hughes Aircraft Retirees Association, a social organization for retirees of Hughes Aircraft Company including Boeing, Raytheon, and Kinecta.
Archival Collection
Tia Ka'auamo oral history interview
Oral history interview with Tia Ka'auamo conducted by Jerwin Tiu and Stefani Evans on April 28, 2023 for the Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islanders Oral History Project. In this interview, Tia Ka'auamo recalls her childhood in Hilo, Hawai'i, and in rural Makawao, Maui as the middle of three daughters born of a Korean-Japanese father and a Filipino-Okinawan mother. She discusses living in state-funded housing in Hawai'i, and with various family members due to difficult personal situations. Ka'auamo discusses earning a bachelor's degree in psychology, spending a summer study abroad in Berlin, Germany, and attending law school. She talks about learning Tagalog from her paternal grandmother, who was punished if she used her language in school, and questions the ways others use language, food, and culture proficiency to determine their identity. Ka'auamo moved to Las Vegas in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and currently works a legal records specialist for the Office of the City Attorney at the City of Las Vegas. She also recently organized the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Committee of city employees.
Archival Collection
Joanne Ullman oral history interview
Oral history interview with Joanne Ullman conducted by Jerwin Tiu, Cecilia Winchell, and Stefani Evans on April 21, 2023 for the Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander Oral History Project. In this interview, Ullman describes her childhood in a close-knit family in New Jersey. She discusses having a balance of Filipino culture at home, while also experiencing the impact of growing up in both an ethnic and socioeconomic minority. Ullman discusses studing molecular biology at Montclair State University, and upon graduating, researching at a science museum under a breast surgeon, where she also met her husband. Shortly after, she began consulting work and relocated with her family to Las Vegas, Nevada. Ullman went on to pursue a masters degree in data analysis at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and then eventually her Ph.D. in psychology. Currently, she spends her time as a full-time professor at UNLV teaching statistics. Throughout the interview, Ullman reflects on her career with fondness, having achieved many feats in research, publishing, and is proud of the way she has raised her family.
Archival Collection
Mavis Eggle "Books as They Were Bought" Collection
The Mavis Eggle "Books as They Were Bought" collection provides a broad overview of printed material from the 1780s through 1949. Gathered by book collector Mavis Eggle, the collection serves as a social history of books, newspapers, and ephemera. Physical characteristics of the books include a variety of printer's marks, publishers' bindings, bookplates, and early subscription libraries. The collection's titles are a diverse and creative gathering of poetry, children' literature, religious texts, broadsides, newspapers, and popular fiction. Together, the items in the Mavis Eggle "Books as They Were Bought" collection illustrate changes in literature, printing and publishing, advertising, and book history over a time period of more than 170 years.
Archival Collection
E. W. Smith Glass Plate Negatives
The E. W. Smith Glass Plate Negatives (approximately 1900-1916) contain original glass plate negatives created by E. W. Smith during his time in Tonopah, Manhattan, Goldfield, and other central Nevada mining towns in the early 1900s. All photographs are presumed to be taken by E. W. Smith unless noted otherwise in the inventory. The negatives were collected by Warren Virgil "Mac" McGowan, who along with his wife Hilda lived in Tonopah, Nevada from approximately 1930 to the 1960s. He was the town photographer and ran a store and boarding house located at what is now 111 N. Main Street in Tonopah.
Archival Collection
Chris Spotted Eagle oral history interview
Oral history interview with Chris Spotted Eagle conducted by Claytee D. White and Stephen Pastorino on January 16, 2025 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Spotted Eagle recalls growing up on the Paiute Reservation in Las Vegas, and shares that part of his family is from the Moapa Band of Paiutes. Spotted Eagle's paternal grandfather, Raymond Anderson, was a fabricator and ironworker for YESCO where he helped create the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign designed by Betty Willis. He shares how the reservation began as a 10-acre plot of land and is now over 4,000 acres. Growth followed various successful enterprises: a smoke shop, three 18-hole golf courses with a wedding chapel, and now, the cannabis industry.
Archival Collection
Chip Johnson Collection of Hoover Dam Photographs
The Chip Johnson Collection of Hoover Dam Photographs (approximately 1930-1936) consist of sixteen black-and-white photographs that depict the construction of Hoover Dam and the surrounding area. The photographs were taken by an unknown photographer.
Archival Collection
Carolyn V. Hamilton Papers
The Carolyn V. Hamilton Papers (1966-2024) consist of advertisements, press releases, correspondence, newspaper articles, awards, and event programs. The materials primarily document Hamilton’s work as a graphic designer and advertising executive in Las Vegas, Nevada from the early 1980s into the 2000s. Some of the materials in this collection pertain to the late comedian Cork Proctor, Hamilton’s former spouse, including performance advertisements and magazine articles.
Archival Collection
Paula Sadler oral history interview
Oral history interview with Paula Sadler conducted by Claytee D. White and Stefani Evans on January 28, 2025 for the Boyer Early Las Vegas Oral History Project. In this interview, Sadler describes arriving to Las Vegas, Nevada as a teenager with her mother from California. After graduating from Green Valley High School in 1994, she enrolled at Rollers Institute of Cosmetology in Commercial Center, and graduated as a manicurist. She then recalls renting a space in a salon before opening her own salon, A Harmony Nail Spa, in Commercial Center in 2004. In this interview, she discusses forming a business owners' association in 2007, cleaning up Commercial Center, and the original vision of Commercial Center by its original owners and developers, E. Parry Thomas and Jerome Mack. She describes the public ownership of Commercial Center's parking lots and sidewalks and the Clark County Commission's relationship with the property.
Archival Collection