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Robert Laxalt Collection Enriches Northern Nevada Reads Program

The Basque Hotel, Robert Laxalt's 1989 novel based on his adolescence in Carson City, was the book selected for the community-wide reading program "Northern Nevada Reads" this spring. Special Collections has drawn upon its large Robert Laxalt manuscript collection to create exhibit materials and posters for several libraries in the Washoe County Library System. A new online exhibit features items in the collection relating to The Basque Hotel and Laxalt's writing process.

Celebrating Comstock History -- Exhibits and Events

2009 is the 150th anniversary of the discovery of the Comstock Lode, presenting the perfect opportunity to display some of the treasures of Special Collections, along with contemporary creative interpretations of historical items. Please join us on Wednesday evenings in October for "Comstock Conversations" with local experts. Visit our exhibit areas on the first and third floors and pick up your 3D glasses to experience a stereographic view of historic Comstock scenes, on the walls across from the auditorium and on the Web.Check our Comstock site frequently for updates including videos of presentations. Don't miss our Readers Theater adaptation of The Psychoscope, a fascinating piece of Comstock literature.

Special Collections "Advertisement" on YouTube

Robin Bigda, an Honors Student majoring in Journalism, Anthropology, and Spanish, created a dramatic YouTube video about Special Collections for a "viral advertising" competition in one of her classes.

 

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Book Arts Exhibits

Special Collections is currently hosting two exhibits through the end of September. "Book Arts: Fusing Words and Visual Imagination" highlights some of the extraordinary artists' books in our collection. "Experiments in Navigation" celebrates the creative spirit of Charles Hobson, an eminent book artist in the Bay Area. The exhibits are located in the exhibit areas adjoining the Special Collections Reading Room on the third floor and in the Whittemore Gallery outside the Wells Fargo auditorium on the first floor of the Knowledge Center. See also our online Book Arts exhibit.

Will James and the West: Life and Art of a "Lone Cowboy"
Special Collections is proud to present a new exhibit exploring the fascinating life of "the
last cowboy legend." It was in Nevada that Will James served time in jail, got married, and wrote Smoky, which won the prestigious Newbery award in 1927. Will James appeared to be the quintessential cowboy ... but he concealed his real identity and origins his entire adult life.

• View the online exhibit
• View the documentary film event invitation

Dan De Quille Painting
Special Collections recently received the only known painting by William Wright, better known by his pen name, Dan De Quille. He was the author of The Big Bonanza, the classic account of the Comstock. As the editor of the famed Virginia City newspaper, The Territorial Enterprise, De Quille mentored the young Mark Twain. The 12"x18" oil painting, acquired from members of De Quille's family, is dated 1881.

Staff Updates
Jim Bantin, the University Archivist, has left Special Collections for a position as Manuscript Archivist in Morris Library at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. We welcome Kim Roberts, formerly of the Acquisitions Department, to Special Collections as a part-time Library Assistant. For help with University Archives materials, or to arrange for the transfer of materials to the Archives, contact Betty Glass or other Special Collections staff.

Photo Curator Kathryn Totton Retires
After working in the library for 33 years, Kathy retired from Special Collections on November 5th. She leaves behind an impressive body of work in the form of an exceptionally well-organized and accessible photo collection. She was responsible for the active digitization of the more than 10,000 Special Collections photographs that are now available in online exhibits.

Special Collections Moves to the Knowledge Center
On Friday, August 8, 2008, the 46-year old Getchell Library closed its doors. The following Monday a beautiful Special Collections Reading Room opened in the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center. The new location offers temperature and humidity control for collections and a preservation lab as well as two enclosed rooms for viewing videos and DVDs and listening to audio tapes from the collection.

"Great Basin Indians: Views and Points of View"
Items from the Great Basin Indians collections are featured in the exhibit hall at the entrance of Special Collections and the exhibit cases in the third floor hallway at the top of the stairs in the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center. The exhibit includes baskets from the UNR Anthropology museum and videos about local tribes.

Collection of Photographs Now Available
A photographic collection from John Albert Marshall II (1910-1976) was recently made available. The 479 images in this collection (UNRS-P2006-04) document activities at Marshall's Sutcliffe, Nevada, dude ranch, known variously as the Desert Inn, Pyramid Lake Club, Pyramid Lake Dude Ranch and Pyramid Lake Ranch. Marshall, an architect in Oakland and Berkeley from 1921 until 1931, acquired  the Desert Inn at Pyramid Lake in late 1931 or early 1932. On July 30, 1936 he sold the ranch and returned to California. Clark Gable was one of the visitors to the ranch during these years.

"Behind the Doors of Special Collections"
is the cover story in the Summer 2007 issue of the Friends of the Library Newsletter.

Exhibit Celebrating Mackay Centennial
Materials selected from the holdings of the University Archives document the history of the Mackay School of Mines to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the school.The exhibit will run through May and can be viewed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m in the Special Collections Department. The shiny new coin shown above was made possible by a generous contribution from Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation. Photo by Jean Dixon.

Working in Getchell Library 1962-2008
Photographs and artifacts from the opening of Getchell Library through the present are now on display in Special Collections. Catalog cards and electric erasers are some of the quaint reminders of a non-digital past, when researchers had to visit the building to find information.

New Access to Black History Photographs
Photographs from the Black History Project are now listed and searchable through the Special Collections Photograph Database. These 1,107 photos were collected and organized in the 1990s to document the achievements of African Americans in Nevada in the last half of the twentieth century. The online guide provides brief descriptions. Search the entire database and order copies of photos through the Special Collections Photos page.

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