Nevada State Museum Las Vegas photo project preserving Southern Nevada history

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – One image at a time, the Nevada State Museum Las Vegas is working on a monumental challenge – preserving, and sharing, the history of Southern Nevada.

The museum’s Photography Digitization Project, started in 2017, recently surpassed 9,000 digitized images that are available online for researchers, educators and the local community to access remotely.  The Photography Collection includes images of Southern Nevada.  Of Las Vegas valley with its winding creek and ranches to the boom and bust of the mining towns, many now just ghost towns, to the building of Hoover Dam and finally the evolution of Las Vegas into the entertainment capital of the world with the casinos, showgirls and celebrity performers of today.

To access the photographs go to: https://www.nvculture.org/nevadastatemuseumlasvegas/ and select research.

That undertaking is just the beginning in what is sure to be a lengthy process as the museum has more than a million prints and negatives still to process.

“This digitization project is a long-term effort that will extend the museum’s reach far beyond Las Vegas,” said Dennis McBride, director of the Nevada State Museum Las Vegas. “Eventually, our entire photo collection will be uploaded and easily accessible to researchers around the world.”

What has been achieved so far has been made possible through the efforts of the museum team and volunteers, who research, catalog and scan photographs and negatives. The support group, Friends of Nevada State Museum Las Vegas, provided the scanning technology through the generosity of their donors.

Anyone who would like to volunteer to assist with research, scanning, or cataloging for this project, then please contact Sarah Hulme at (702) 822-8738 or shulme@nevadaculture.org.