Name/Title
John and Esther Shipp CollectionEntry/Object ID
MS.17Scope and Content
John and Esther Shipp Collection
MS 17
John and Esther Shipp Collection
[1 box]
John and Esther Shipp came to Boulder City in August 1941 when Esther went to work for the Lake Mead Seismological Party of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and John for the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation. Both were deeply involved in Boulder City's clubs and organizations, such as the Rebekahs, Girl Scouts, and the Odd Fellows.
Esther began writing for the Boulder City News in 1949, and her features, profiles, and column, Here and There, in which she kept track of the birthdays, anniversaries, and personal anecdotes of Boulder citizens, were a popular staple of the News for nearly 40 years.
John retired from the Bureau of Reclamation in 1968, then worked briefly in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas's printing plant. In 1976, John made an unsuccessful run for the Nevada State Senate, and in February 1977 was appointed Constable of Nelson [now Boulder] Township upon the death of Perlie Morris. Shipp was subsequently re-elected and served as Constable for 10 years.
Among the material in this collection are John Shipp's Bureau of Reclamation service pin and award for commendable service, as well as the pins and arm band he wore while serving in Boulder City's Civil Defense group during World War II. Other items include a copy of a journal kept by Esther Shipp when the family first arrived in Boulder City, and the photographs and biography files she used in her stories for the Boulder City News.
The evolution of the John and Esther Shipp collection of biography files is interesting. The collection was originally gathered by Laura Bell, a writer and historian who worked as the Boulder City/Henderson stringer for the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Review-Journal newspapers in the 1940s and '50s, as well as for both the Henderson Home News and the Boulder City News. Bell kept track of the social life of these two communities, including births, deaths, engagements and marriages, anniversaries, vacations, graduations, reunions, retirements, and any other notable news about the people of Boulder City and Henderson.
Esther Shipp inherited the files from Laura Bell in the 1950s, adding significantly to the original collection throughout the 1960s and '70s. In the 1980s when Esther retired from her column, she turned the collection over to Boulder City News reporter Virginia "Teddy" Fenton, who used the information gathered there to produce lengthy feature articles and obituaries about local families and individuals.
The biography files in the Shipp collection cover the years 1946 through 1979, with some clippings collected from the 1980s. All the files have been added to the museum's biography collection and an inventory of the Shipp material is stored with the Shipp manuscript collection, together with the date book Esther used to keep track of births and anniversaries.
Photographs sorted out of the clippings files are stored as the John and Esther Shipp Photograph Collection.
* * *Collection
ManuscriptsArchive Items Details
Notes
MS 17
John and Esther Shipp Collection
inventory
[1 box]
Box 1 of 1
folder no.
item: U. S. Bureau of Reclamation medallion in a blue box,
"Award for Commendable Service to John H. Shipp, Sept. 21, 1968"
item: U. S. Bureau of Reclamation 20-year service pin [stored in box
with the medallion]
1. date book
2. miscellaneous notes
3. inventory of biography files
4. letter/journal, re: arrival in Boulder City [September 1941]
5. U. S. Bureau of Reclamation badges used as identification tags
by participants in a Hoover Dam celebration [?]
6. World War II Civil Defense pins
7. World War II Civil Defense arm band worn by John Shipp
[photo in the John and Esther Shipp Photograph
Collection, no. 0018]
8. membership card - National Congress of Parents and
Teachers, 1955
9. John Shipp's uniform shoulder patches when he served as
Constable for the Boulder [formerly Nelson] Township,
c. 1980s
10. Lake Mead Seismological Stations - reports [January 1942]
* * *Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Bell, LauraPerson or Organization
Shipp, JohnPerson or Organization
Shipp, EstherPerson or Organization
Fenton, Virginia "Teddy"Related Entries
Notes
biography files
photographs
photograph collection no. 0018 [John and Esther Shipp Collection]Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
July 16, 2002Updated By
bcmha.archives@gmail.comUpdate Date
September 3, 2025