UNLV history professor Sue Fawn Chung has been named one of the two Nevada advisors to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The trust, which was chartered by Congress in 1949, recently became a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting America's treasures, particularly historic buildings and the neighborhoods and landscapes they anchor, documents and works of art, and other print media.
Chung and Andria Daley-Taylor, the state's other trust advisor, will work on public policy matters and projects with the Preservation Association of Clark County, the State Historic Preservation office, and other state and regional preservation organizations and archaeological societies.
Chung said one of the major goals of Nevada's trust advisors will be to find individuals interested in participating in the establishment of a statewide preservation association, which will be based in Las Vegas. Nevada and Nebraska are the only two states that lack such an organization.
In addition, they will be promoting the Trust and Bank of America's tax credit fund, which provides local groups with financial assistance in the revitalization of small neighborhood properties.
Chung, who has taught at UNLV for 25 years, brings to the trust activities a background in American art and architectural history, Asian art history, Asian-American history, museum exhibits, movie and television, and historical archaeology. She received the Nevada Humanities Award in 1996, the Rita Deanin Abbey Teaching Award in 1998, and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce Community Achievement Award in 1999.
Chung spent the last two summers working on a U.S. Forest Service archaeological project in Island Mountain, located near Elko. Founded in 1873 by Emanuel Penrod, who also was a founder of the Comstock Lode, Island Mountain was considered a multicultural community with everyone participating in Chinese New Year's celebrations and other festivities. More than 50 percent of the inhabitants of Island Mountain were Chinese.
According to Chung, the Native Americans, Euro-Americans, and Chinese lived together in relative harmony as they worked the surrounding area in search of gold. The community ended with the departure of Chinese merchant Hong Lee, "Ng Hong Lem," around 1916-1918.
Chung will soon begin work on a project involving the trust's activities in saving Angel Island, often called the "Ellis Island of the West." Located near San Francisco, Angel Island served as the immigration center on the West Coast of the United States from 1910-1940.
In addition to her research work, Chung currently serves on the Comstock Cemetery Foundation Board, the Comstock Archaeology Center Board, the Chinese Historical Society National Exhibit Advisory Council in San Francisco, and the Gene Autry Museum Board of Advisors for the "On Gold Mountain" exhibit in Los Angeles, which will be on display at the Smithsonian Institution in 2001.
She serves on the faculty of UNLV's department of history, which is part of the College of Liberal Arts.
For more information about the trust and its activities, including the formation of the statewide organization, contact Chung at (702) 895-3351 or via E-mail at chung@nevada.edu.
