NHS Artown Talks & Gallery Guides 2024
July 6 @ 10:00 am - July 27 @ 3:00 pm
NHS Artown 2024
Saturday Programs
July 6 through July 27, 2024
July 6, 2024
10:00am Debbie Hinman, Boys and Their Toys: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Summary: This talk features three important local events—one involving airplanes, one a special train and one celebrating sports cars and driving skills that brought thousands of locals out to celebrate Reno as an important venue for special events, a trend that continues today.
Speaker Bio: Debbie Hinman is a Reno native and UNR graduate. She has been a researcher, writer, and tour guide with the Historic Preservation Society for the past 20 years and has been a commissioner on the city’s Historical Resources Commission since 2016.
1:00pm Joe Tingley, Mining Talk, From Gold to Mineral Water, Humboldt County’s Blackbird Mine
Summary: Located high on the north end of the Eugene Mountains, the Blackbird Mine produced a little gold in the 1890s and maybe a little more in the early 1900s and late 1930s. Its claim to fame, however, dates from about 1947 when C.A. Coppin, the mine owner at the time, found mineral water to be flowing from an underground source within the old mine. Those who drank the water claimed it provided relief from various disorders including ulcers, arthritis, and heart disease. For a short period of time both “Coppin’s Mineral Water” and “Coppin’s Club Soda” were bottled at the mine and sold in Reno and other locations in northern Nevada.
Speaker Bio: Joe Tingley came to Nevada in 1960 for graduate studies at UNR. He worked as an exploration geologist for various companies in the western U.S., from 1962-1978, then joined the faculty at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology at UNR in 1978 as a research geologist, retiring in 2004. Joe has been volunteering at NHS for the past two years.
July 13, 2024
10:00am Sarah Patton, Collection’s talk, C Is for Cookie
Summary: C is also for clubs, community, collection, and Clara Crisler. In addition to designing the 1905 version of the state flag, Clara Crisler was involved in a statewide cookie campaign in the 1920s, actively participated in the Nevada Federation of Women’s Clubs throughout her life, served as land office registrar, and amassed a large private library, a portion of which was donated to the Nevada Historical Society.
Speaker Bio: Sarah Patton is the Archivist at the Nevada Historical Society, where she oversees the library, manuscripts, and photographs collections; runs the Research Library; and responds to reference inquiries. Prior to her arrival at NHS, she was the Research Services Manager at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives at Stanford University.
1:00pm Mike Fischer & Howard Herz, AGA, Gambling Talk, The Bank Club II – Rehabilitation of a Bunch of Unsavory Characters or Not
Summary: It is hard to surpass the early history of Reno’s Bank Club – especially when it comes to unsavory characters. However, when Graham McKay went to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, The Bank Club renewed its acquaintance with people of poor character. Come learn the inside story of continuing political influence, East Coast criminals as potential partners and watch the entire enterprise go up in flames in the 1960s.
Speaker Bio: Dr. Michael E. Fischer was appointed Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs by Governor Gibbons in 2007 and served in the Sandoval Administration until Cultural Affairs was merged with Tourism. Prior to that, he practiced dentistry in Gardnerville for 31 years. Fischer served eight years as a Douglas County Commissioner.
Dr. Fischer brings many years of private sector cultural affairs management. He has served several terms on the Board of Directors of the Western Folklife Center. As a life member, he serves on the board of the Douglas County Historical Society. He is currently on the boards of the Thunderbird Lodge Preservation Society and the Nevada Agricultural Foundation.
Speaker Bio: Howard W. Herz is a native of Reno Nevada and attended Reno schools through high school. Throughout his teenage years he worked for Harvey’s Resort Hotel in the summers and managed Harvey’s coin collections. In 1967 Harvey’s began collecting gambling chips. This collection stimulated Howard’s interest in the history of gambling in Nevada and later the history of gambling throughout the United States.
Howard’s interest in gambling history continues to this day as he catalogs the Society’s substantial gambling records and artifacts. Of special interest are the records and artifacts of what the industry termed to be “special work” – cheating devices and methods.
July 20, 2024
10:00am Joe Tingley, Mining Talk, From Gold to Mineral Water, Humboldt County’s Blackbird Mine
Summary: Located high on the north end of the Eugene Mountains, the Blackbird Mine produced a little gold in the 1890s and maybe a little more in the early 1900s and late 1930s. Its claim to fame, however, dates from about 1947 when C.A. Coppin, the mine owner at the time, found mineral water to be flowing from an underground source within the old mine. Those who drank the water claimed it provided relief from various disorders including ulcers, arthritis, and heart disease. For a short period of time both “Coppin’s Mineral Water” and “Coppin’s Club Soda” were bottled at the mine and sold in Reno and other locations in northern Nevada.
Speaker Bio: Joe Tingley came to Nevada in 1960 for graduate studies at UNR. He worked as an exploration geologist for various companies in the western U.S., from 1962-1978, then joined the faculty at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology at UNR in 1978 as a research geologist, retiring in 2004. Joe has been volunteering at NHS for the past two years.
1:00pm Wendell Huffman, Lake Tahoe Talk, Wood for the Comstock
Summary: In the three decades after 1859 the Comstock consumed a pile of wood equivalent to 4 times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Three-fourths of this was burned for fuel, the rest was used for mining timbers. Over the years the wood came from farther and farther away and new techniques were developed to deliver it. This is the story of how that industry developed and eventually faded.
Speaker Bio: Wendell Huffman is the retired curator of history at the Nevada State Railroad Museum, a position he held for fifteen years. Before that he was a librarian at the Carson City Library. Prior to attending grad school at the University of Oklahoma (where he earned advanced degrees in the History of Science and Library and Information Studies), Wendell worked as a logger in northwestern California. With his experience in logging and his knowledge of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, it was only natural that he made a study of logging for the Comstock. His book Wood for the Comstock, and this presentation are the result of that investigation.
July 27, 2024
10:00am Sarah Patton, Collection’s talk, C Is for Cookie
Summary: C is also for clubs, community, collection, and Clara Crisler. In addition to designing the 1905 version of the state flag, Clara Crisler was involved in a statewide cookie campaign in the 1920s, actively participated in the Nevada Federation of Women’s Clubs throughout her life, served as land office registrar, and amassed a large private library, a portion of which was donated to the Nevada Historical Society.
Speaker Bio: Sarah Patton is the Archivist at the Nevada Historical Society, where she oversees the library, manuscripts, and photographs collections; runs the Research Library; and responds to reference inquiries. Prior to her arrival at NHS, she was the Research Services Manager at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives at Stanford University.
1:00pm Debbie Hinman, Boys and Their Toys: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Summary: This talk features three important local events—one involving airplanes, one a special train and one celebrating sports cars and driving skills that brought thousands of locals out to celebrate Reno as an important venue for special events, a trend that continues today.
Speaker Bio: Debbie Hinman is a Reno native and UNR graduate. She has been a researcher, writer, and tour guide with the Historic Preservation Society for the past 20 years and has been a commissioner on the city’s Historical Resources Commission since 2016.
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Every Saturday in July join us for a FREE Artown talk and tour! Nevada history is rich with characters, legends, and lore. Hear the stories of the way Nevada and Reno came to be in five short history talks. Tour the galleries and our Educational Gallery Guides can give you the inside scoop on artifacts. Seating is limited so arrive early. The Nevada Historical is located on the UNR campus across from the Fleischmann Planetarium. Free parking passes are available.