Artown Talks and Gallery Tours – Every Wed. July 2022

The Nevada Historical Society (NHS) has actively participated in Artown since 2014. The NHS Docents and staff are offering short talks & gallery guides to talk about the galleries every Wednesday in July. We hope to whet your appetite for Nevada History with these eight great 15 minute talks before you explore our galleries! A Free Artown Event!

Artown Talks – Program Schedule and Artown brochure 2022

Wednesday, July 6 at 10:30am
A Collecting We Will Go: Dr. Wier’s 1908 Southern Nevada Trip with Sherlyn Hayes-Zorn
Hear the story of founding Nevada Historical Society director, Dr. Wier’s trip to Southern Nevada during July and August of 1908. Learn how Jeanne Elizabeth Wier travelled by train, wagon, and horse to document and preserve mining camps, towns, and early pioneer histories, records, and artifacts, including former Senator William Stewart’s Law office materials in Bullfrog, Nevada.

Wednesday, July 6 at 1:00pm
Miss Wakayama, Peacemaker with Betsy Morse
Miss Wakayama, a gift to Nevada from the people of Japan, is both a beautiful work of art and an unlikely peacemaker.  She was part of an innovative attempt to reduce international tensions by exchanging dolls.  Hear about the success of that effort, the changes in her fortunes during the Second World War, and the mystery of the doll’s identity.

Wednesday, July 13 at 10:30am
Bill Fong’s New China Club with Sarah Patton
When Bill Fong opened the New China Club in Reno in 1952, it was one of the only casinos in town where African Americans and Asian Americans were welcome. In addition to offering the first legal fan-tan and pai-gow games in Nevada, Fong and the New China Club sponsored the Keno Queen beauty contest and the Fong Open golfing tournament. Come see photographs from each of these events and learn more about this ahead-of-its-time establishment through exploration of material from the Nevada Historical Society library, manuscript collections, photographs, artifacts, and research resources.

Wednesday, July 13 at 1:00pm
Wahmonie: Nevada’s Last Bonanza Discovery- or the First? with Joe Tingley
Stan Paher, in his classic book “Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps,” described Wahmonie as Nevada’s “last flamboyant mining rush.” The 1928 rush to Wahmonie was by automobile, not burro, and only spawned a tent city which had largely evaporated by 1930. If discoveries by Mormons in 1853 (or maybe 1847) at the old Horn Silver Mine could be verified, the first mining at Wahmonie would predate the 1859 discovery of the Comstock by at least four years.

Wednesday, July 20 at 10:30am and 1:00pm
The Winters Family of California and Nevada with Lorraine Petersen
Meet the Winters of California and Nevada – A family that improved the land wherever they settled. Winters, California, is named for this family. Nevada was not the land of promise when families left their birth states and countries in “Search of the Elephant.” The pioneers headed their wagons toward California and the Oregon Territory. Eventually, some families backtracked and made Nevada their state. The Winters settled in Utah Territory before Nevada became a Territory. They helped develop the Nevada State Constitution and have helped govern and guide the state for generations. They started professional horse racing in the West. They were instrumental in giving us Nevada Day. Come and learn about the Winters of California and Nevada, a family that helped develop the West.

Wednesday July 27 at 10:30am
Tsars, Tea, and Volunteerism: The Nevada Historical Society’s Docent Council with Catherine Magee
Discover how a Russian Tzars’ tea set ends up in Nevada to play a role in the origins of the Nevada Historical Society’s Docent Council. In this talk we take a journey with Russian Diplomats to Comstock Barons to Divorce Ranch Owners to Reno volunteers. We will explore this and more to learn how this 40-year-old organization has helped our local and state-wide community through free educational outreach programs. Come be inspired by what our Docent Council could do in the next 40 years.

Wednesday, July 27 at 1:00pm
If Streets Could Talk with Susan Moore-Fry
Imagine viewing from the level of a drone the city streets and as you pass over a short film of the namesake’s history is played. What would you hear? Who was once engaged to Vanderbilt’s daughter? Who was a cowboy gambler from Arkansas? Who was an early mountain man? Who was Governor when gambling was legalized in 1931? Was it Whittaker? Or Ralston? Could it be Beckwourth? Come hear the answer to these questions and more.