Nevada Periodicals, Newspapers, and Manuscript Collections
This entry was originally written by Nell Sachse Woodard and Dwight A. Radford for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Periodicals
Nevada Historical Society Quarterly is published by the Nevada Historical Society. The Nevada Historical Society's website has an online index to this publication by author, title, and subject. Another important publication is The Prospector, published since 1976 by Clark County Genealogical Society.
Newspapers
Newspapers for a great many cities are on microfilm at the Nevada State Library, Nevada Historical Society, and the University of Nevada in both Reno and Las Vegas. The University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries website has a database inventory of these newspapers on microfilm. The database provides access by title, county, and city. The website also has links to indexes and current newspapers.
The Territorial Enterprise had its advent at Genoa in 1858 but was shortly moved to Carson City and then to Virginia City. Mark Twain used this newspaper to cut his journalistic teeth, so these publications were not just politics and mining but literary endeavors as well.
The Silver Age superseded the Enterprise at Carson City. The Daily Independent began publishing in Carson City in 1863, but it did not survive after October 1864. The Daily Evening Post was also a short-lived publication. A number of early papers were started only to end or to move from one location to another. A standard reference to those and subsequent undertakings is Richard E. Lingenfelter and Karen Rix Gash, The Newspapers of Nevada: A History and Bibliography, 1854'1979 (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1984).
Manuscripts
The Nevada Historical Society, a major historical depository, has an excellent collection of old newspapers, manuscripts, and diaries. The Nevada Historical Society's 'Russell McDonald Collection,' indexed on the society's website, has biographical information on state officials and other prominent Nevada residents.
'Nevada Women's History Project' provides biographies and source material (published and unpublished) for manuscript collections in the state. A special collection at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas contains major historical records, manuscripts, diaries, and photographs, especially of Clark County.
Outside the state, a researcher should consult the University of California, Bancroft Library, California, as well as the Utah State Archives and Records Service and the Utah State Historical Society. All of these have important historical manuscript materials, particularly for the territorial and pre-state eras.
