Nevada State Museum, Carson City

Nevada State Museum, Carson City
The Nevada State Museum in Carson City
Nevada State Museum, Carson City is located in Nevada
Nevada State Museum, Carson City
Location in Nevada
Established1941
Coordinates39°10′03″N 119°46′03″W / 39.1675°N 119.7675°W / 39.1675; -119.7675
TypeHistory and natural history museum
OwnersNevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs
WebsiteOfficial website

The Nevada State Museum, Carson City[1] is one of seven Nevada State Museums operated by the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs. As the premiere flagship institution of the state museum system, it is also the oldest state museum, and sits in the state capital.[2]

The Nevada State Museum, Carson City, attracts spectators in observing and appreciating the natural and cultural heritage of Nevada. It demonstrates the state's history from the prehistoric period to the present, including geology, prehistoric animalian neighbors, silver mining, and American Indian culture.[3][4]

In 2025, its name changed from the Nevada State Museum to the Nevada State Museum, Carson City though the Nevada Legislature.[5]

History

The Nevada State Museum, Carson City, came into force by conserving the Carson City mint. The mint was in operation from 1870 to 1893, and housed Coin Press No. 1, the sole coin press at the mint, which continues to strike medallions with the famed CC mint mark to this day.

Carson City Mint historical drafting sheet
Historic image of the Carson City Mint

Exhibits at the Nevada State Museum

The Nevada State Museum features ongoing and temporary exhibitions. Recent collaborations include artist Melissa Melero-Moose's This Is Us: Contemporary Art From the Great Basin Native Artists, which featured local Native American artists.[6]

Ongoing Exhibitions

  • Historic Carson City Mint: Coin Press No. 1 of the Mint and CC (Carson City) marked Comstock silver dollars[7]
  • Nevada's Changing Earth
  • Nevada: A People and Place through Time: it offers a march through the history of Nevada. The USS Nevada Battleship is the focus of this exhibit, including silver service fashioned from 5,000 ounces of silver and lined with gold from Goldfield.[8]
  • Under One Sky: it demonstrates the history of the earliest inhabitants of Nevada through 10,000 year-old artifacts. Situated in the latest section of the museum, this exhibit shows American Indian culture from a Native American viewpoint.[9]
  • Waší∙šiw Guwá: The Work of the Washoe People, featuring baskets by the Washoe people including Sarah Jim Mayo and Louisa Keyser (Dat So La Lee)
    Ghost town exhibit, Nevada State Museum, Carson City, Nevada.

Louisa Keyser (Dat So La Lee) Baskets

Image of Louisa Keyser amongst her baskets in Carson City
Image of a Dat So La Lee basket

Housed in the museum's permanent collection, a premiere collection of intricate Washoe baskets woven by Dat So La Lee, the legendary Washoe master weaver renowned for her impeccable technique. Her nineteen baskets in the museum collection, feature thousands of stitches per inch and are celebrated globally as some of the finest examples of Native American basket artistry.[10] There is also a mural of the artist on an exterior museum wall.[11]

Notable Objects

The museum was opened in 1941, and houses rare collections related to the history of the American West: Basketry of the Great Basin Native American people, Fey Slot Machine Collection, guns of the Old West, Chinatown cultural materials, and the silver service set made for the USS Nevada battleship.[12] It also houses a mummified cat found in a tree in Genoa, Nevada. On display is the world's largest exhibited Columbian mammoth found in the Black Rock Desert.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Nevada State Museum". Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs. Retrieved April 18, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Nevada State Museum | Carson City | Carson City Mint Museum". Travel Nevada. Retrieved August 24, 2026.
  3. ↑ "Nevada State Museum, Carson City". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  4. ↑ "University of Nevada, Reno, Geology of Nevada" (PDF).
  5. ↑ "Nevada State Legistaure Meeting Notes" (PDF).
  6. ↑ Vagner, Kris (December 12, 2025). "One-woman 'museum': The new Great Basin Native Artists show at the Nevada State Museum has, in a sense, been in the works for decades". Reno News & Review. Retrieved August 24, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Nevada State Museum Carson City, NV". Sierra Nevada Geotourism. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  8. ↑ "About the Nevada State Museum". NewToReno. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Nevada State Museum Mission". Nevada Tourism & Cultural Affairs. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  10. ↑ francineburge (May 2, 2025). "Nevada State Museum to Debut Washoe Tribe Basketry Exhibit in May 2025". Nevada State Museum | Carson City. Retrieved August 24, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Nevada State Museum Commissions Greg Deal to Complete Dat So La Lee Mural". Medicine Man Gallery. October 16, 2024. Retrieved August 24, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Nevada State Museum—Carson City". Travel Nevada. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
  13. ↑ "The Pleistocene Nevada Exhibit". Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs. Retrieved April 18, 2010.

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