Research Guide

At the heart of Illuminating Reno’s Divorce Industry is a library of over 1,000 individual items that shed light on the many facets of Reno divorce history. Some of the items are used throughout the exhibit to illustrate and expand upon six themes and 28 subthemes and the related stories. But the library is also a place to conduct research, by searching or browsing the content by topic or by formats, which include

  • books
  • articles
  • unpublished primary material from manuscript collections
  • photographs
  • brochures
  • excerpts from audio interviews
  • complete transcripts of interviews
  • videos
  • and more.

The project began with a bibliography, compiled over many years by our project curator, Mella Harmon. The bibliography that she first developed for her thesis, Divorce and economic opportunity in Reno, Nevada during the Great Depression has grown to include citations for all aspects of the history of Reno divorce and related topics. Illuminating Reno’s Divorce Industry includes digital versions of as many of the items in the bibliography as we could provide within the constraints of copyright law and time. The full bibliography is available as a pdf download, or in sections listed in the right column.