Thousands of rare historical images by photographer Clinton Wright documenting life in the Westside neighborhood of Las Vegas have been digitized and made accessible online through the efforts of six UNLV students.

Over the course of two years, Alfredo Lim, Nicole Garcia-Contreras, Ericka Merielle Garces, Rexxor Agdeppa, Kelly Esquejo, and Aria Khawar digitized nearly 2,500 objects comprising almost 8,200 images from Wright’s archive. They worked under supervision from Digital Collections staff and the curator for visual materials.

“By digitizing these photographs, researchers gain a clearer and more nuanced understanding of the local Westside community,” said Cory Lampert, head of Digital Collections. “Wright’s photographs appeared in the Sentinel-Voice newspaper, and as the 'eye' of the newspaper, he captured the people and the lives of a vibrant community. His photographs contradict the visual cliches of a Black ghetto and uncover the rich daily lives of people who lived, worked, played, and enjoyed all the many facets of a rich culture in a closely knit community.”

The Clinton Wright Photographs (PH-00379) are now available to researchers worldwide through the UNLV Special Collections and Archives Portal. 

The collection includes common celebrations of life, like marriages, birthdays, and anniversaries, as well as scenes of street life, businesses, clubs, and restaurants. 

“These images provide a compelling story through the faces of those whose history and lives have been too long omitted from the dominant historical record,” said Lampert.

Lim, Garcia-Contreras, and Garces were selected to present on the digitization project during the 2024 Southern Nevada Diversity Summit, held earlier this semester at Nevada State University. Here, they share their experiences of working on the project, as well as some of their favorite photos from Wright’s collection. 

Alfredo Lim, computer science major

What I learned from working on the Clinton Wright project is how important faces are. When you are sitting at the computer making adjustments to a photograph – whether capturing the image, editing the exposure, adjusting the white balance, or optimizing the contrast — you’re striving to illuminate the historical context of the image as Mr. Wright saw it. The faces in these images provide that context, offering clues about who these people are and their stories. Our work helps tell their story and preserves their history. 

Our goal is to gather as much information as possible from the photographs. The biggest challenges were interpreting the details in the images – like clothing, locations, and hidden elements – by understanding the technical aspects of photography. It's important to understand what makes a photograph a photograph. By answering these questions, I could digitally enhance the photos to highlight their most significant aspects of what Mr. Wright was trying to capture.

Ultimately, this process reveals much about the people in the photos and shows how technology can be a powerful tool for human connection and understanding.

Nicole Garcia-Contreras, communication studies major

I have worked in the Digital Collections department for two years, and it’s not a typical library student job. Many people aren’t familiar with the type of work I do in the department, so having the opportunity to showcase our efforts at the conference was very exciting. I was eager to share the knowledge I’ve gained and explain why it’s so important to the Las Vegas community. 

For this conference presentation, I was responsible for the Metadata section, and I was thrilled about it. After working with metadata for two years, my knowledge has grown tremendously.

The biggest challenge was figuring out how to condense two years of work into just three bullet points and a single image. My goal was to present metadata in a way that felt simple and easy to grasp. I’m proud to say I achieved that, creating a clear diagram that effectively illustrates what metadata is.
 
During the presentation, I found myself repeatedly explaining why metadata is important, what it does, and how it impacts the Las Vegas community. After giving the same explanation so many times, it finally clicked just how significant metadata really is and the positive changes I’m helping to make in my community. I’ve come to realize that metadata is essential for accessibility — without it, history couldn’t be documented accurately or made easily available.

Ericka Merielle Garces, history major

When Amy [Check, Digital Collections Workflows Supervisor and Lab Manager] presented us with this opportunity to talk about our experiences working in Digital Collections, I was excited because I love talking to people about what I do here. My work in Digital Collections is important to me because I firmly believe that increasing the accessibility of our materials is essential, as well as spreading the word about our online collections for more people to engage with and benefit from.

For the presentation, I gathered information by asking around and reading about Clinton Wright's works. Using that information, I created concise bullet points that conveyed the key points.

However, during the first minutes of the presentation, I quickly realized I needed to drastically reduce the information I had prepared to focus on the most important ideas. While adjusting on the fly proved to be a bit of a challenge, I believe it ultimately paid off. I found it fascinating to learn about the impact the Clinton Wright Photographs had in empowering the African American community during his time, providing a voice that resonates even decades later.