Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas

We hope everyone had a wonderful first week back at school!🏫

The Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas wishes you a very healthy and happy 2024-2025 school year.

We're here to support you with our school programs, like Museum in a Box and Field Trips! Learn more!
Museum in a box: www.lasvegasnvmuseum.org/box
Field Trips: www.lasvegasnvmuseum.org/fieldtrip

📸: 0136:0071, Las Vegas schoolchildren in the 1930s

We’re celebrating Nevada's beauty and diversity through postcards. 💌 Join us for the Nevada, P.S. I Love You Postcard Project and create a postcard for a stranger somewhere in Nevada. This heartfelt initiative is open to all ages!



Learn more at: www.facebook.com/share/XRthWVPUqxKzjwYK/

Flashback to our exhibits and security team members installing the UNLV School of Public Health’s collaboration “What is Medical Entomology and Medical Parasitology?” exhibit in our Curator's Canyon. 🪲

We love seeing team work make the dream work. 🌈

Sometimes the wildlife wants to come work in the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas.

Roadrunner enjoyed our morning meeting! Now they are off running around somewhere. We'd want to work here too.

On this date in 1960, "Ocean's 11" starring the Rat Pack debuted.

This black and white photograph from the archives, shows people gathered at the Stage Bar, Flamingo Hotel and Casino. This bar was featured in the movie films "Oceans 11" and "Viva Las Vegas."

📸: 0112:1688

Join us on August 17th for the Nevada, P.S. I Love You Postcard Project! 🌟 Create positively beautiful hand-made postcards to be shared with strangers across the state.



Learn more at www.facebook.com/share/XRthWVPUqxKzjwYK/

We celebrate the rich history of Las Vegas every day in our museum store! Stop in and shop our collection of Las Vegas books, postcards and novelty items.

Visit the museum and learn more about the history of our fabulous city with our new exhibit “Greetings from Las Vegas: Growth of a City Through Postcards."

The extensive postcard collection offers a window into the past, showing the transformation of the city from a railroad stop into the major tourist destination that it is today. The diverse collection is sure to surprise, delight and transport you back in time. And it might just inspire you to send a few cards of your own!📬️

🛍️SHOP + SUPPORT❤️
Your museum store purchases help fund museum exhibits and programs.

Have you been to all three of the state museums in Southern Nevada? If you are a museum member, you can visit all of the state museums free of charge! Learn more at https://www.lasvegasnvmuseum.org/become-a-member/

Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas
Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City
Lost City Museum

We needed to put our Curator of Natural History, Dr. Rick Gawne to work
on our UNLV collaboration "What is Medical Entomology and Medical Parasitology?" exhibit. 🪲

We figured we would start with simple tasks.

Join us for another Natural History Tour with Moonis Ghani this Saturday at 3 pm!

Tours are typically less than 30 minutes and begin under the Bristlecone Pine in the museum's lobby.

📅On this day in 1969, Elvis began four weeks of performances at the newly opened International Hotel, opening with "Blue Suede Shoes."

Backed by an orchestra, band, and two gospel groups, he would perform 57 shows, usually two shows a night, seven nights a week, to a sold-out crowd of 2,000.

During this run, Elvis would debut "Suspicious Minds," which would be his first number one song in seven years.

Thank you to everyone who came to Dino Day! We hope you had a stompin' good time! 🦖

Discovery Saturdays is back this week! Visit the Education Room on Saturdays from 1pm-3pm to discover more🔎

❤️🤍💙The Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas is honored to take park once again in the Blue Star Museum initiative which provides free admission to active-duty U.S. Military personnel and their families through Labor Day. ❤️🤍💙

🚨Now on view in the Curator’s Canyon…our itchy, scratchy, creepy, crawly UNLV School of Public Health’s collaboration, “What is Medical Entomology and Medical Parasitology?” exhibit.

🪲Catch it while we're open Thursdays-Mondays, 9 am - 4 pm, with special 8 am entry for Nevada State Museum and Springs Preserve members.

Don't forget that this Saturday is a special Discovery Saturday, Dino Day at the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas!🦖 In the spirit of this summer’s dinosaur exhibit at the Springs Preserve, we’re celebrating all things dinos and paleontology. ⁠
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The event takes place from 10 am - 4 pm in the Special Events Room. ⁠
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Our special events room will be transformed into a prehistoric exploration zone, featuring unique family-friendly activities, including: crafts, fossil etching, puzzles, fossil digging, Jurassic photo ops.

📚Story time with author Nick Saines!
Nick will be reading from his book "A Dinosaur Lives in Red Rock Canyon" followed by a book sale and signing. Don't miss this chance to meet the author and get your book personalized!

Participants can take a passport and complete activities for chances at winning a prize! ⁠

Free with admission

🔎Can you help us solve a mystery? We recently had a hand fan donated that came from the Sirocco Room at 421-23 Jackson Street here in Las Vegas.

Anyone know of it? If so, please feel free to comment or email [email protected].

Enjoy learning? Want to put your knowledge to good use?

The museum has a new Museum Guide program that focuses on inspiring an individual's lifelong learning through events, lectures, and time spent with the curators. Museum Guides also assist the museum staff with tours and assisting with school programming.

If interested, please email a letter of interest, describing why you would like to be a Museum Guide or your previous experience in museums to [email protected]. Applications are open through August 31, 2024.

Are you ready to dive into Teacher Hours every Friday from May to July?

Join us in the Education Room from 10 am to 12 pm for conversations with our education team, where we'll explore our school programs, delve into resources for field trips, and even sneak a peek at the Museum in a Boxes before the next school year kicks off! Here's the cherry on top: it's completely free with your museum/Springs Preserve admission!

🌷Don't keep this gem to yourself—share it with your fellow educators, and drop a comment below if you plan to join in on the fun! 🎉

Need a break from all this heat?☀️

👉️Make sure to come and see "Greetings from Las Vegas:
Growth of a City Through Postcards."

And while you’re at it…
👀Be on the lookout for the new NSMLV/UNLV collaboration exhibit opening soon!

📅On this date in 2004, the Las Vegas Monorail system opened to the public.

Prior to that, the monorail was in operation between the MGM Grand and Bally's hotels. This image shows the monorail in the 1980s crossing Harmon Avenue.

📸: 0112:1118, NSMLV Photography Collection

📅Postmarked on this date in 1942, this postcard is of the Lido Auto Court in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Visit other postcards in our "Greeting from Las Vegas: Growth of a City through Postcards" exhibits, on view now in our Changing Gallery..

Our Education Room updates are still in the works, so there will be NO Discovery Saturday this weekend. The good news is, the well-conditioned museum galleries will be open with plenty to see and do....like a Natural History Tour of the Galleries with Moonis at 3 pm!
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🎉Come by Discovery Saturday next week to see the updates to our Education Room!

🚨New day and time!🚨

Join us for a Natural History tour with Museum Guide Moonis!⁠
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Learn about the organisms and environments of Nevada through this natural history tour through the Permanent Gallery.⁠
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Tours begin at the entrance to the Permanent Gallery, under the Columbian Mammoth. Tours are about 20-30 minutes.

🧑‍🎤ROCK N ROLL! Our Museum store inventory is done and we are open!

An upside to doing inventory is we get the opportunity to give our best-selling rocks a good cleaning after they are weighed, counted and returned to the rock pile!

With inventory over and a new fiscal year upon us, look for new items arriving in the store soon!

🛍️SHOP + SUPPORT🛍️
Your museum store purchases help fund museum exhibits and programs.

We hate to say this, but there will be NO Discovery Saturday tomorrow. The good news is, the well-conditioned museum galleries will be open with plenty to see and do.

🎉Come by Discovery Saturday next week to see the updates to our Education Room!

🎆Happy Independence Day!🎆

This image shows the Tonopah Volunteer Fire Department pulling the hose cart in a 4th July parade in 1904.

The museum is open today if you choose to celebrate by visiting the museum!

📸: 0078:0046, NSMLV Photography Collection

Join the Friends of the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas on July 18th in our Special Events Room for another great talk!

Doors open at 2 pm. Free with the cost of admission or a museum membership.

The Friends monthly meeting was held on Thursday, July 18, at 2:30pm in the Events center at the Nevada State Museum. The last meeting before our summer break was well attended and entertained with a great presentation by Tiffany Pereira, from the Desert Research Institute (DRI). Tiffany gave an interesting presentation on the blending of science and art in her work. Tiffany is an ecologist, currently working on a botanical inventory of the Tule Springs Fossil Beds Monument - collecting samples of all plants in the area. Her presentation included stories of her collections, her drawings of various plants, and the need for more collaboration between scientists and artists. We sincerely thank Tiffany for spending time with us and sharing her experiences.

The business details of the meeting were:
1. Hollis (museum director) reported that the windows were washed for the first time since the building was occupied. additionally, all carpets and floors were also cleaned.
2. The Friends have cash on hand of $46,432. Of this, $14,950 has been committed.
3. Dino Day will be held on July 27. Our own Nick Saines will be presenting reading on dinosaurs from his book. All are welcome during the 10am to 4pm activity.
4. The Autumn Online Auction will be held from November 8-22. Further details will be forthcoming as we draw near to the date.
5. The membership voted to approve the purchase of a computerized white board for use by the curators. Jordan demonstrated the board at the meeting.
6. Our annual summer campaign will be held in August. The board has decided to pursue a goal of $8,000 to purchase new exhibit tables to supplement the current 18-year old set. Any donors of $500 or more will have their names engraved on a brass tag attached to the tables to recognize their donation. Donation request letters will be sent out in early August.
7. The September speaker will be Maggie Bukowski, the museum's former curator of library, documents, and photographs. Maggie's new book on Las Vegas will be released in late November. She will be previewing and discussing the book with us.
8 The next meeting will be September 19th at 2:30 pm in the museum events room.

This month's presenter will be TIFFANY PEREIRA, head of the Conservation Ecology Lab at the Desert Research Institute. Tiffany is a research scientist specializing in the flora and fauna of the Desert Southwest. She has published numerous technical reports and journal articles Her basic research focuses on seed ecology, soil seed banks, and rare plant habitat restoration. As both a researcher and an artist, she believes that science and art do not exist on separate planes, polarized by different processes. She incorporates art into her research and provides design and illustration work for scientific communication to organizations. She has combined these two worlds from a young age, striking the perfect balance of creativity and science.

The presentation promises to be interesting from many viewpoints, with a deep look into the ecology of the flora and fauna of our home area. Join us for a stimulating afternoon!

When was the last time you escaped the heat to travel back in time! You never know who you will run into in the galleries or what they might be able to show you! Visit us Thursdays-Mondays to see what you discover!

📸: Staff member Jack showing a dinosaur skeleton replica to recent visitors.

Hello, teachers! Have you been to the museum for Teacher Hours, yet?

Well, here's a sneak peek at our School Programs cart.

Visit us Fridays through July, from 10 am - 12 pm in the Education Room to meet the Museum Educators, learn about our school programs, and see what other resources we have available to you during the school year.