UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives

A piece of UNLV history has found a new home in Special Collections & Archives. 🔦
You may recognize The Flashlight, the 38-foot-tall sculpture that has stood between Artemus Ham Concert Hall and Judy Bayley Theatre since 1981. But you probably have not seen this smaller version.

The maquette, or scale model, of the sculpture spent nearly three decades in the office of Jerry Schefcik, longtime director of the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery within the UNLV College of Fine Arts. When Schefcik retired in May after 37 years of service to UNLV, it was important to him that the piece remain safe and connected to the university.

Now, the maquette is part of our collections, where it is undergoing minor repairs, and will be preserved in the archives.

Created by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, The Flashlight was inspired in part by the flashlights ushers use to guide guests to their seats. Despite a popular campus rumor, the sculpture does not point downward because of airport traffic. Van Bruggen felt that a flashlight shining into the sky was too predictable, which led to the upside-down design we know today.

Swipe to see The Flashlight on campus today, its unforgettable journey to Las Vegas in 1981 and the maquette now being preserved by University Libraries.

Slide of Oldenburg’s sculpture of a flashlight, Las Vegas, 1981.” University of Nevada, Las Vegas Photograph Collection, University Libraries Special Collections and Archives. Digital ID: pho009866.

We were honored to welcome Clinton Wright and his family this week for a tour of Lied Library. The family also met with the students, faculty, and staff who helped process and digitize his photograph collection.

Wright donated his film negatives to Special Collections and Archives in 2014. Today, the collection is available through the Special Collections and Archives Portal, giving researchers around the world access to images documenting everyday life of the Black community in the Historic Westside neighborhood of Las Vegas during the 1960s and 1970s.

We are grateful for Wright’s contribution to preserving and sharing this important part of Las Vegas history and enhancing our collections.

Visit the link in our bio to explore the collection.

We’re proud to share that this photograph from the Robert Woodruff Photograph Collection has been selected to represent UNLV in the Society of American Archivists’ 250 for the 250th initiative, a national digital repository highlighting materials that tell the story of the United States through its archival record.

This striking 1934 photograph by Robert Woodruff captures the construction of Hoover Dam (then known as Boulder Dam), showing an enormous pipe being moved across Black Canyon while the dam rises below. The image documents one of the most ambitious engineering projects of the 20th century and a development that forever transformed Southern Nevada.

The 250 for the 250th initiative explores the many stories preserved in archives that help us better understand our shared past and its continuing impact on the present. Learn more: https://td52e01bc4f4b6253.starter1ua.preservica.com/portal/en-US

What do great buns and fast-pitch softball have in common? Deborah Morelli.

Today we welcomed the Great Buns Bakery Vice President of Operations to Special Collections & Archives for a tour and oral history interview. We learned that before joining the family business, she pitched fast-pitch softball at William E. Orr Middle School and Basic High School.

Thank you, Deborah, for helping us preserve Southern Nevada's history.

Special Collections & Archives has officially transitioned to summer hours!

The Reading Room is open Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. for researchers, students, faculty, and community visitors.

Planning a visit? in advance. We encourage you to check our hours and prepare in advance. Reference questions can be sent anytime to [email protected].

Learn more: https://www.library.unlv.edu/whats-new-special-collections/2026/2026-05/special-collections-archives-summer-hours.html

You may not know Robert Scott Hooper by name, but his gaze has shaped impressions of Sin City for decades.

For more than 40 years, the prolific photographer documented the city’s entertainers, architecture, spectacle, and visual culture. His images appeared in magazines, newspapers, and playbills, and on billboards, postcards, taxicabs, and other pieces of visual commentary on the city’s cultural landscape.

Now, that legacy has found a permanent home at UNLV. The Robert Scott Hooper Photograph Collection preserves decades of material documenting both the photographer’s career and the evolving identity of Las Vegas.

Read more about this new collection.

The Photographer Behind Las Vegas’ Image The Robert Scott Hooper Photograph Collection at UNLV preserves decades of celebrity portraiture, commercial imagery, and the changing visual culture of Las Vegas.

Please join us for Sunday research hours this May 10 from 12-5 in Special Collections and Archives. If you can't make it in - please check out our new website at https://library.unlv.edu/sca

This is a small portion of books from our Mavis Eggle Books as They Were Bought Collection (MS-01144).

Thanks for going on this 2026 Preservation Week journey with us! We are grateful to our conservator Jay Tanner for making these posts possible!

Sometimes objects suffer losses. Here, our conservator was able to fill the loss with a printed color fill on Japanese repair tissue. This fill was done so that it can be reversed in the future if needed, but helps blend the aesthetics of the cover. -week