Alicia Barber
Historian, Time & PlaceAlicia Barber, PhD, is a professional historian and award-winning writer whose work focuses on the built environment and cultural history of Nevada and the American West. After earning a doctorate in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003, she moved to Reno, where she taught at the University of Nevada, Reno for the next ten years, and directed the University of Nevada Oral History Program from 2009-2013.
She is the author of the book Reno’s Big Gamble: Image and Reputation in the Biggest Little City as well as multiple articles and chapters for both popular and scholarly publications, and the co-founder and editor of Reno Historical (renohistorical.org), a map-based smart phone app and website that identifies and describes historic sites throughout the city. Founder of the historical consulting firm Stories in Place, Dr. Barber collaborates frequently with government agencies, museums, artists, architects, and community groups on projects ranging from oral histories to historical displays and exhibits. In 2014 she was honored with the Silver Pen Award from the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
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When someone mentions Chinatown, the cities of San Francisco, New York, or Los Angeles might come to mind, but Chinatowns were once common throughout the…
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Summer is a busy time for city parks, especially those with swimming pools. Historian Alicia Barber tells the story of one area favorite in this episode…
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These days, women run for every level of political office, from local to national races. But in the 1970s, the public was still getting used to female…
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Today, some of Reno’s largest hotel casinos are located miles from the city center. But they were once confined to a much smaller area, as Alicia Barber…
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May 9th was a big day for Reno. It marked the 150th anniversary of the city’s founding back in 1868. Historian Alicia Barber gives us the scoop on how it…
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Lake Tahoe has been a center of recreation for more than a century. But long before that, it was a home to the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California.…
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Baseball season is just around the corner, along with opening day for our local Triple-A team, the Reno Aces. Historian Alicia Barber looks back at our…
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Today, women work at all levels of the legal profession, but that wasn’t the case just a few generations ago. Historian Alicia Barber tells the story of…
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We close out Black History Month with the story of one of the first Black student organizations at the University of Nevada, Reno. Historian Alicia Barber…
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There’s nothing quite like the Olympics for bringing the world together—at least in the world of sports. It’s been almost six decades since the Games came…