People

Las Vegas, NV – The Nevada State Museum in Las Vegas Hollis J. Gillespie has been awarded a Fulbright Specialist Program Award. She was selected for her academic and professional achievements, as well as leadership in her field.

As one of over 400 U.S. citizens selected, Ms. Gillespie, with input from the Montenegro Ministry of […]

In celebration of International Clown Week, the first week in August, from our collections, we have a 1966 film clip of the George Moro dancers at the Sahara Hotel and Casino in 1966. This features slapstick circus clowns performing to the music from the prior year’s hit ‘Everyone Loves a Clown’ by Gary Lewis […]

Eilley Orrum Bowers, once the nation’s wealthiest women with an ultimately sad life story that is indicative of this ‘boom and bust’ era.

Come and see our hologram of Eilley talking about her life in our galleries. 

Born in Scotland, Eilley was one of a few women living in […]

On November 25, 1920 the Anderson Airfield opened located near where the Sahara Hotel and Casino parking lot is today. It was the first airport to service Las Vegas. It had an ‘L’ shaped runway that allowed pilots to land according to different wind directions and was designed and operated by Robert Hausler, an […]

On November 5th 1969, founder and owner of the Ronzone’s chain of department stores that date back to the 1910s, Bertha B. ‘Mom’ Ronzone, passed away at the age of 84 years.

Born Bertha Bishop in 1885 in Iowa, Bertha married her husband, Attilio Ronzone, in 1901.  They moved to Nevada two years later and […]

On November 3rd 2016, singer and dancer Kay Starr passed away. An occasional performer at the Las Vegas Strip

casinos, Kay also sang at Harry S. Truman’s presidential inauguration in 1945. She went on to achieve gold with her signature song ‘Wheel of Fortune’. Kay could tackle […]

On September 17, 1930, hundreds of people gathered at Boulder Junction, Las Vegas (near the cross streets of Valley View and Russell today) to mark the start of construction of the 22 mile Union Pacific railroad track to link Las Vegas to Boulder City, as well as the beginning of the Boulder Dam project.

The […]

On September 10th 1957, the first classes were held on the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) campus in a new 13,000-square-foot building; serving a growing post-war population in need of higher education services. The university started as an extension program from the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) back in 1951. It gained independence […]

This Spring through a combination of the UNLV Regent’s Service Program, and the generous donation following the 2020 Fall silent

auction by the Friends of NSMLV, the museum acquired a special record player and we embarked upon a new project – digitizing record albums!

Our history collection contains many vinyl […]

On June 2nd 1966 the Four Queens Hotel & Casino opened on Fremont Street, downtown Las Vegas. The casino was named after the four daughters of the founder and president Ben Goffstein. In turn, they were named after a queen from a pack of cards: Michele (the eldest) was the Queen of Spades, Benita […]