LibGuides: History: Las Vegas history

Las Vegas Magazines

Las Vegas Magazines
Online access to Las Vegas Story, Follow Me to Las Vegas, Magazine Las Vegas and Las Vegas Playground from the 1950s and 60s

Nevada Historical Society Quarterly

Nevada Historical Society Quarterly
PDF of each volume, 1957-2009.
NHSQ site
All NHSQ newsletters and announcements, video lectures, e-cards and more
Index to the publications of the Nevada Historical Society
Print index
Nevada Historical Society Quarterly print holdings at UNLV
Print issues of NHSQ, including 2010-current.
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Each volume is indexed in a print indexed published in the next volume. For example, to check the index for the four issues of volume 43 published in 2000, check the contents of vol 44 (2001) for the cumulative index of the previous year.)
Nevada Historical Society Quarterly (EBSCO)
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Indexed with abstracts in America: History and Life, full text not included.

Historic Preservation

Nevada State Historic Preservation Office reports
Reports, multiple property documentation forms, and other research resources created for the Historic Preservation Office, including a 150 page report on World War II Era residential housing.

Documentaries

The City of Las Vegas - The Fifties
The City of Las Vegas - The Forties
The City of Las Vegas - The Thirties
The City of Las Vegas - The 1920s
The City of Las Vegas - The Early Years
The Mob on the Run (1987)
By Ned Day, Robert Stoldal, KLAS-TV, 1987.
The City of Las Vegas - The Fifties

History Museums in Southern Nevada

Boulder City / Hoover Dam Museum
Cahlan Research Library - Manuscript Collections
List of manuscript collections available at Nevada State Museum, Cahlan Research Library.
Cahlan Research Library - Nevada State Museum
Clark County Museum
Howard W. Cannon Aviation Museum
Las Vegas Natural History Museum
The Mob Museum
National Atomic Testing Museum
Neon Museum
Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas
Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas Online Collections
Online collections include Helen Stewart papers, Benny Binion papers, Volunteer Fire Department archives, and thousands of photos.
Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City
Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort
Springs Preserve

Microform Research Collections

Organized Crime

FBI Files on organized crime figures
Online records from FBI FOIA vault
Mobbed Up: The Fight for Las Vegas (podcast)
Podcast hosted by journalist Jeff German, produced in collaboration with the Mob Museum and the Las Vegas Review Journal

Yearbooks

Special Collections and Archives also has high school yearbooks from Las Vegas High School (Boulder Echo, Wildcat Echo, Echo), Sunset High School, Western High School (Epitaph), and Bishop Gorman (Archive).

Las Vegas high school yearbooks

Las Vegas history overviews

Las Vegas history timeline
Las Vegas Sun timeline outlines events in the Valley from the 19th C to present.
A Gamble in the Sand: History of Las Vegas (Las Vegas Sun)
Las Vegas Sun website includes interactive casino history map, historic timeline, and Voices of Vegas sound clips from prominent Nevadans.

Resort City in the Sunbelt by Eugene P. Moehring
Call Number: F849.L35 M643 2000, UNLV Book Stacks and Special Collections
ISBN: 0874173566
Publication Date: 2000

"Las Vegas History: A Research Agenda"
2004 Nevada Historical Society Quarterly article by Eugene Moehring with a good overview of research done (and needed) on Las Vegas.
Early Las Vegas
Overview with links to UNLV digital collections.
Online Nevada Encyclopedia
Essays and exhibits about Nevada history.

Las Vegas maps in chronological order

Las Vegas City Commission records, 1911-1960

Las Vegas City Commission records
The Las Vegas City Commission Records (1911-1960) is comprised of materials from the original Las Vegas City Commission. Includes minutes that served as the official record of the proceedings of all Las Vegas City Commission meetings from 1911-1960. There are also three volumes of City of Las Vegas ordinances dating from 1911 to 1958, one volume of legal documents from 1944-1945 and two large volumes containing an alphabetical subject index to the topics covered in the minutes. Other materials cover the period 1921 to 1946 and include minutes, resolutions, ordinances, correspondence, financial records, proclamations and other documents related to city business.

Maps and photos available online

UNLV Special Collections & Archives Portal
Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas Online Collections
Online collections include Helen Stewart papers, Benny Binion papers, Volunteer Fire Department archives, and thousands of photos.
Historical Nevada Collections from NSLA
Historic Landscape of Nevada
Nevada in Maps (UNR)
Southern Nevada and Las Vegas History in Maps
UNLV Special Collections and Archives Photo Collections
UNR Special Collections Photographs
Nevada Sanborn Maps (UNR)
Includes 1923 Las Vegas maps
Las Vegas and Water in the West
Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years
Nevada State Museum, Carson City Online Collections
Images of objects from Navajo, Hopi, and Ancestral Pueblo cultures.
Virgin Valley Heritage Museum, Mesquite Online Collections
The mission of the Virgin Valley Heritage Museum is to deepen the understanding of the community and visitors about the Virgin Valley specifically Mesquite, Bunkerville and Southern Nevada. We strive to bring history to life through collections, exhibits, special events and educational opportunities.
Digital Public Library of America
PastPerfect
Search digital objects from museum and cultural heritage collections.

State and Local Documents

Records and reports published by the state and by certain Clark County or City of Las Vegas agencies can be found on the second floor in the compact shelving in the northeast corner. Use the library Quick Search and try an organization name, for example: Clark County Dept. of Aviation, Clark County School District.

Appendix to the Journals of the Assembly and Senate by Nevada Legislature
Call Number: Gov't documents (next to Tutoring) 29-A5A/4
Publication Date: 1939-1949 available in print only
The appendix compiles all the biennial reports made by various state agencies and officials to the Nevada legislature. These are substantial primary sources that have both narratives and data about everything that was regulated in any way by the state: education, embalming, insurance, mining, the sheep commission, the university system and more.

Las Vegas demographics and economy

Las Vegas Perspective
Print publication available from 1984-2021 with demographic, real estate, community and tourism data about the Las Vegas valley.
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Current issue at Research and Information desk; older issues in book stacks and Special Collections.

MyResearcher.com This link opens in a new window
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First time users must register with their UNLV email address.
Create tables of Las Vegas economic indicators using data from Applied Analysis.
MyResearcher allows users to search millions of economic, fiscal, social and environmental metrics, tracking and trending the ones that matter most to them. MyResearcher has Las Vegas and Clark County area statistics as well as detailed gaming statistics from across the United States.

Government Information
by Susie Skarl, Urban Affairs Librarian Last Updated Nov 8, 2024 356 views this year

Historical Census - Nevada
Summary of online and offline access to census information about Nevada

Oral Histories

Documenting the African American Experience in Las Vegas
KNPR: The Las Vegas I Remember
Oral histories
Nevada Test Site Oral History Project
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The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is a comprehensive program dedicated to documenting, preserving and disseminating the remembered past of persons affiliated with and affected by the Nevada Test Site during the era of Cold War nuclear testing.
Southern Nevada Jewish Heritage Project
UNR: University of Nevada Oral History Archive
Veterans Oral History Project
West Las Vegas Teen Oral History Project « The Librarian's Brain
WLV Teen Oral Histories
Margaret Wheat oral history collection, UNR
Oral histories from Paiute and Shoshone people in Nevada

Blogs

Captain History (Robert Stoldal)
Blog by journalist and independent curator and student of Nevada history Robert Stoldal. (also known as bigfootnote.com, vegasarchive.com and vegasrecord.com)
Classic Las Vegas (Lynn Zook)
Zook created the documentary The Story of Classic Las Vegas: An Overview exploring "the real history of the city from the 1930s-1970s."
Over50Vegas (Alan Schuyler)
Site for collectors including scanned directories (1926-1954) and details about many downtown businesses.
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Over50Vegas is intended to be place where the hobby of collecting casino
and entertainment related items combines with a century of colorful history!
Vintage Las Vegas (Jeffrey Carlson)
A dated photographic record of Las Vegas with focus on the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown, limited to the 20th century.
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Index pages are maintained for Las Vegas Blvd and Downtown. The collection can be searched by year or property name.
Out History! Nevada and Las Vegas (Dennis McBride, Crystal VanDee, Paul Ershler)
Essays and photos about gay history in Nevada and Las Vegas

Dissertations & bibliographies

Dissertations and Theses: UNLV This link opens in a new window
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Full text of most UNLV dissertations produced after 1997; citations and abstracts for others.

History