Working with The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Department, the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas curated 35 images of Las Vegas and the surrounding area from the 1940 iconic publication, Nevada: A Guide to the Silver State. This publication was a culmination of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) project under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Federal Writers’ Project.

In the spring of 1940, Government photographer Arthur Rothstein (full bio below) photographed Nevada on assignment for the Federal Farm Security Administration and provided almost one-third of the images in the heavily illustrated Nevada guidebook. This exhibition combines Rothstein’s photographs with objects from the Museum’ s extensive historical collection to offer a window into this pivotal year in Nevada’s history.