RENO — The University Libraries is pleased to share the Reno Gazette Journal Photograph Collection with northern Nevada and its community of diverse users.
It consists of approximately 1.5 – 2 million photographic negatives documenting the happenings across Northern Nevada communities spanning the period of time covering 1959 to the 2000s.
Visit Nevada Today to learn more about how experts in the libraries worked together to process this unique collection.
The comprehensive coverage of people, places, events, fashion and style found in the collection is unparalleled.
There is no other known collection publicly available providing this degree of photographic documentation of the development and social history of the region in the 20th century. Additionally, more than 117 names of different photographers have been identified so far.
“Outside of our Political Papers collection, this new addition serves as another jewel in the libraries’ crown,” University of Nevada, Reno Dean of University Libraries Catherine Cardwell said. “The RGJ Photograph Collection ensures discoverability and access to a rich resource that is available for use to meet scholarship, learning, personal enjoyment and research needs.”
Requests for copies of photos have risen in the University Libraries’ University Archives department by more than 33 percent between 2018 and 2021.
“People tend to request documentation from the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s,” Assistant Professor and Director, Distinctive Collections, Head of Special Collections and University Archives Kim Anderson said. “Now we have excellent visual resources to share.
The collection is even pre-licensed for all but commercial uses; meaning researchers can publish in non-profit presses from it, students can use it to design digital projects or learn how different social movements of the 20th century played out locally, and homeowners and residents can use it to research history of their house or neighborhood.”
The collection came to the Libraries from the Reno Gazette journal in early 2020 in 360 boxes of various sizes, all filled with envelope after envelope of photographic negatives.
The libraries were offered this collection because the Reno Gazette Journal was changing building locations and no longer had room for the collection or a staff position to manage it.
“People trust the libraries to take good care of collections like this,” Anderson said. “From the initial conversation to the legal negotiations, to working with Gannett and the RGJ, the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents and grant funders, we strive to serve our constituents by offering them important and complex primary sources that are easy to access and use.”
A grant totaling nearly $79,000 was awarded to the Libraries by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records in July 2021.
Work associated with the grant was completed at the end of August 2022.
Funds awarded were used to process, rehouse and describe the original photographic negatives collection, as well as support the digitization of one box of 750 negatives and the creation of descriptive metadata, along with cataloging work necessary to make the collection findable, shareable and useable.