Dean Martin in a George Sydney photograph from the classic Copa days. The Sands Collection has some of Special Collections' best known photos. Alphabetical List Subject List (coming soon)

About the Collections Special Collections maintains a photograph collection of over 70,000 individually cataloged images, including black and white and color prints, slides, negatives, color transparencies and glassplates. All types of Las Vegas urban scenes are represented, casinos and hotels (both interior and exterior), other buildings, street scenes, construction, people, events, the UNLV campus. The department also maintains a nearly comprehensive series of aerial photographs of Las Vegas and environs from the early 1970s to the present. The photograph collections as a whole date from the turn of the century and are particularly significant in documenting the physical culture and evolution of the city from the late 1940s through the 1970s.

Access to the Collection

Special Collections maintains a name, location, and subject card index for the photograph collections as well as browsing copies of individual photographs. We are currently developing online databases of the photographs.

Alphabetical List of Photograph Collections

Photograph Collections by Subject (coming soon)

Reproduction of Photographs

Photographic reproductions of material in Special Collections are available upon request. Reproductions are produced on campus by the university's Creative Services department, and a fee schedule is available in the department. The following conditions apply to photographic reproductions:

• If a negative of a requested image is not already on file, a new 4x5 copy negative will be made at the expense of the requester.
• All copy negatives are retained in Special Collections.
• In addition to the reproduction costs, a use fee will be charged based on the nature of use (i.e. commercial or academic).
• No use fee is charged for one-time use in student papers, theses, university publications, scholarly publications, or by non-profit organizations or local newspapers and television stations.
• Special arrangements for the duplication of film or video may be required, and fees for the use of video or film are set according to the specific material and use required. Fees may be charged for videotaping and scanning of images, however, Special Collections does not provide scanning of images.

Please note that anyone requesting copies of images in ANY format must sign a use agreement before any copies will be provided. Legal use of the image is permitted only according to the terms of the agreement.

For further information, please contact Kathy War.