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NEH & Nevada

Between 2000 and 2010, institutions and individuals in Nevada received $5.9 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Nevada Humanities for projects that explore the human endeavor and preserve our cultural heritage. Below are some examples.

  • Begun in 2001 with a $44,000 grant to Nevada Humanities, the Online Nevada Encyclopedia continues to expand. Recent additions to the free multimedia resource include materials on Howard Hughes and the Donner Party.
  • Supported by a $248,700 grant, the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, has created a multilingual bibliographic database of Basque language, history, and culture. The resource, which is available online through the university’s Basque Library, contains 30,000 records.
  • History professor Paul W. Worth of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has received a $40,000 fellowship to research religious freedom and the development of civil order in Russia between 1772 and 1914.
  • The Senator Howard W. Cannon Aviation Museum in Henderson has received two grants totaling $9,300 to assess the preservation needs of its collections and implement appropriate conservation strategies. The museum, located at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, traces the history of flight in Southern Nevada from 1920 to the introduction of the jet.
  • Sandra Jean Ott, a professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno, has received a $6,000 grant to research the trials of French Nazi collaborators after World War II. Her upcoming book, Crimes and Punishments: Collaborators and Justice in the Pyrenean Borderlands, 1940-1946, will explore human dignity and the morality of capital punishment through the historic trials.
  • To support institutional development, the Clark County Museum in Henderson and the Carson Valley Historical Society in Gardnerville each received grants of about $5,000 to help preserve their collections of historic artifacts and other holdings.
  • A $2,000 grant helped the Guggenheim–Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas host a teacher leadership program devoted to understanding work and social class through the art of the Industrial Revolution.
  • A $25,000 grant supported two planning seminars for the Asian Studies Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The Center, which explores the contemporary and historical relevance of Asian politics and culture to the campus and Las Vegas communities, was founded in 2004.
  • In 2009, Nevada Humanities became a partner in Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Heath Care, a national reading and discussion program designed to improve communication skills, increase empathy for patients, and promote job satisfaction among health care professionals. Participating Nevada hospitals include Renown Medical Center, the University of Nevada School of Medicine, and the Reno VA.
  • Begun in 2002, the Vegas Valley Book Festival has grown into the largest literature event in Las Vegas. Sponsored in part by Nevada Humanities, the festival features readings, panel discussions, workshops, and poetry performances from some of the most acclaimed national and Nevadian authors.
  • Humanities on the Road, Nevada Humanities’ speakers bureau, offers lectures and Chautauqua performances to non-profit organizations statewide on topics ranging from “Nevada’s Partisan Press” to “Sagebrush Vernacular: Rural Architecture in Nevada.”