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These handwritten diaries document Blair’s senior year (1890-1891) at the University of South Dakota and are set mainly in Vermillion and Elk Point, South Dakota. The collection also includes one copy of the Volante from June 15, 1891. This Volante issue covers a tumultuous time at the University and has one article by Blair.

For the 250th birthday celebration of the United States of America, we are resharing this wonderful 2014 blog post by Archives and Special Collections' employee Abigail Proehl about our music book collection: American History in the Mahoney Music Collection This week we celebrate the birth of our nation, with this Friday marking the 238th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Throughout those two centuries, music has played a key role in shaping our American culture

The Archives and Special Collections has a 1937 atlas by the Clay County Planning Board. It depicts the county after the stock market crash of 1929 and during the Great Depression. The maps show parcels of land owned by private individuals, the Federal Land Bank, other banks, insurance companies, land associations, etc. "The Clay County Farm Ownership Atlas was sponsored by the Clay County Planning Board. The work of securing the data, drafting, blue printing, and all clerica

The Archives and Special Collections has a compilation (i.e. bill book) of South Dakota Legislature House Bills from 1890. D. M. Inman’s signature is on the first page. South Dakota became a state in 1889, and the state's first session of the legislative assembly met in 1890. Darwin M. Inman (1838-1913) was a businessman, politician and educator from Vermillion. He served as a representative from Clay County to Dakota Territory and South Dakota Legislature in 1877-1878, 1881-

I find my joy browsing the library stacks. This month, I looked for books with fore-edge printing and fore-edge painting. These are methods of applying images to the edges of book pages. Sometimes the image is visible when the book is closed, and sometimes the image is only visible when the pages are fanned. Fore-edge is the edge of a book opposite the spine or the bound edge. I found fore-edge printing on a few art books and science fiction books in the I.D. Weeks Library, b

A library book that is 50+ years overdue is a common trope in books and movies. Though it is not common here, the library recently (and happily) received an overdue book that was checked out for 56 years. This image of the check-out slip for the overdue book shows that it was checked out in 1970. Guinness world record for the most years that a returned library book had been overdue is 288 years.

In an article published in South Dakota History on December 27, 1989, Governor George S. Mickelson reflected on the first hundred years of South Dakota as a State. Governor Mickelson remarked that President Benjamin Harrison signed proclamations in 1889 forming four states: South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington. To commemorate the 100th birthday of South Dakota, the South Dakota Centennial Commission created a vision for grass roots, volunteer-directed groups o

"Seven leaves of the first edition of the King James Bible which was published in 1611 and is the most famous of Bibles in the English language, have been given to the University by Alfred A. Frantz, ’26-’27 of New York City. The leaves comprise the book of Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher and the Song of Solomon both from the Old Testament. The individual pages are 11 inches by 16 inches and are printed in two columns, each wider than two columns of newspaper print. Their paper

Frank Blair kept this diary while he was a student at the University of Dakota (later called the University of South Dakota) from 1887 to 1891.

Finding aids finished during 2025: Shane Balkowitsch Ambrotypes Robert Blachnik photographs Rex Butler Collection of Henry and Frank H. Butler photographs Lea Rosson DeLong papers on Wilber M. Stilwell Dephane Hammond papers Nikki Heidepriem collection on Edith and Margaret Reeves Gilbert Monell Hitchcock papers Richard Holm notebook Arthur Leslie Keith papers Henry Langford Loucks papers Albert J. Maag papers Department of Psychology Richardson Phonograph collection Gretchen

The drawings show Old Main, East Hall, Law Building (currently the Arts & Sciences Building), Library (currently the National Music Museum), New Armory (currently the Al Neuharth Media Center), Old Armory (currently the Belbas Center), and Slagel Auditorium (currently the Aalfs Auditorium). Included in this post is a drawing of the Old Armory. Call number […]

Archives and Special Collections recently received a list of interviews with Clay County WWII military veterans done by Donna Schafer and published in the Vermillion Plain Talk newspaper. Aakre, Elmer “Sandy”. Vermillion Plain Talk. March 25, 2011, page 5. Anderson, Richard. Vermillion Plain Talk website says January 27, 2011, but we could not find it […]

Help us transcribe our collections! https://fromthepage.com/usdarchives FromThePage is a software designed for transcribing documents. The platform enables users to view an image of a page and transcribe the corresponding text. More information https://libguides.usd.edu/fromthepage Questions? Email us at library@usd.edu Recently our work in FromThePage was featured on KTIV news. https://www.ktiv.com/2026/01/13/becoming-digital-archivist-vermillion-libraries-seek-volunteers-h

First started by fur traders, Dakota Territory trading posts provided places for patrons to meet, have a drink of whiskey or two, purchase items needed for everyday living or work, obtain jobs, get a room for the night, or obtain a ride to another town. Cuthbert DuCharme (“Old Pap”), a French-Canadian fur trader, arrived in […]

In the 2000s, the USD Alumni Association offered Christmas ornaments based on University of South Dakota buildings. I found ornaments for Old Main, Belbas Center, Neuharth Center, East Hall, Inman House, and the Old Law School. Do you know of others? The Archives and Special Collections will be closed on December 24, 25, and 26.

To honor Indigenous traditions, languages and stories during Native American Heritage Month, we are highlighting Dakota and Lakota language classes at the University of South Dakota. The newsletter of the Institute of Indian Studies recounts, “There is an interesting story behind the development of the course. It started as a topic introduced from the floor […]

After you watch Ken Burn’s The American Revolution, these books will help you learn more about the signers of the Declaration of Independence: Waln, Robert, and John Sanderson. Biography of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence. 2d ed., rev.Improved, and enl., W. Brown and C. Peters, 1828. CHILSON COLLECTION / 3RD FLOOR ; E221 .S215. We […]

We are tracing the history of a troll figurine which stands on the top of a filing cabinet in the Archives and Special Collections. Because it is not associated with an archival collection, we think it belonged to someone who worked in the library or archives. Our first full-time archivist writes that it was here […]

Please let us know if you find miniature books in the Herman P. Chilson Collection not shown in the image above. We know there are more. “Miniature books are books measuring 10 centimeters or less in height and 10 cm. or less in width. A book exceeding 10 centimeters in its longest dimension is not […]

The Archives and Special Collections recently wrote finding aids for our two sets of phonograph albums, the Richardson Phonograph Collection and the USD Phonograph Collection. Most of these are 12-inch, 33 1/3 rpm vinyl disks, though a few other sizes, rpms, or materials are present. The Richardson Phonograph Collection consists of albums by South Dakota Musicians. […]