Maurine and Fred Wilson Papers (MS-00012)

Helen Maurine Hubbard Wilson (1898-1990) was born in Missouri, but moved to Colorado with her parents where she graduated high school and attended Colorado Women's College in Denver as a music major. In 1922, she married Fred Holmes Wilson (1898-1958), a native of Cañon City, Colorado who had served in the Naval Geologic Services during World War I. In 1925, the couple moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where Fred worked for the United States Postal Service and Maurine taught music and served as the organist for the First Methodist Church.

Soon after their arrival in Las Vegas, the Wilsons met and became close friends with Dr. William S. Park and his family. They shared a deep interest in the history, archaeology, and geology of southern Nevada, and the two families made many trips throughout the southwest and California. In 1929, Fred Wilson and William S. Park began to assemble a photographic and film history of early Las Vegas, documenting everything from baseball games to the first air mail delivery to Las Vegas. Their efforts were cut short when Fred Wilson's health began to decline in 1940. After that, Wilson devoted his time to historical research. Fred Wilson passed away in 1958 after a long illness.

Maurine Hubbard Wilson preserved the legacies of her husband and William S. Park, donating the bulk of their photographic and manuscript collections to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Special Collections and Archives over the course of the 1970s and 1980s. She died in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1990.

Source:

"The Lost City," National Park Service, accessed April 18, 2019, https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/the-lost-city.htm

Hopkins, A. D., "A Heritage in Home Movies," Nevadan, Las Vegas Review-Journal March 16, 1980, pp.30-31J.

Philips, Marjory, "Maurine Hubbard Wilson: a salute to the people who are building our Southern Nevada community," Nevada Manuscripts Program for the Bicentennial, 1976.