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Some of South Dakota first ladies (i.e. governors’ wives) are described in the Tidbits sections of the South Dakota governors residence cookbook: a culinary legacy celebrating the first families of South Dakota, 2007. Margaret Wylie Mellette “was a china painter and portrait painter and was the hostess at the South Dakota Building at the 1893 Columbia […]

The Richard Deo Grass collection (MS 254) is now open to researchers. The 4.5 linear feet of material spans the years 1950’s-2010, with the bulk of the material dated 1980-2010. Richard Deo Grass was born on May 29, 1939 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was raised off the reservation in Alliance, […]

You may have noticed that it is COLD outside. In Dakota Territory and the northern plains, 1880-1881 was also a hard winter. Some areas received 11 feet of snow causing difficulties for trains and wagons delivering supplies. Newspaper publishers ran out of paper, and some newspaper issues were printed on tissue, wrapping paper, wallpaper, cloth, […]

Archives and Special Collections has recently received a 1964 letter written by author Mari Sandoz about the two Sitting Bulls living contemporaneously. They were not one person as sometimes conflated by newspaper men and historians. The letter contains some of her evidence and refers the reader to her book Hostiles and Friendlies for the entire […]

Stop by the Archives and Special Collections where we have on display children’s literature from the Mahoney Music Collection. In addition to possessing great illustrations, these books enhance music vocabulary and music appreciation, introduce famous composers and musicians, and/or educate on musical concepts like rhythm and melody.

Did you know that the Archives and Special Collections has Christmas carols in Latin? They can be found in the Classics Department collection.

The Archives and Special Collections has recently received a book about residents of our county who did not return from war. It contains 10 biographies written by USD students and their professor concerning military service personnel from Clay County, South Dakota, who were killed in action. The biographies are based on information gathered from local […]

The 36th Division Campaign Maps mystery has been solved. After speaking with many other archives and museums that had the same amount of information as the USD archives, I spoke with someone from the Texas Military Forces Museum. She was able to provide much more information than we were expecting, and it’s some interesting stuff! […]

The Archives and Special Collections contain some great materials, but we don’t always know the full story behind them. To provide some background, the maps below are from Frederick Cullen Burton’s collection of manuscripts, photos, documents, and poems. Frederick attended USD as a journalism major before joining the Royal Air Force in Canada to fight […]

The Archives and Special Collections at the University of South Dakota began in October 1968 when Herbert Schell was appointed the first University Archivist. He was largely responsible for organizing The University of South Dakota’s historical records into the USD Archives. His extensive letter writing campaign between 1968 and 1971 added many collections of professional and personal […]

“As soon as we were across the [Missouri] river, we started up the river on our long westward journey. Late in the evening we camped at a farm house some six miles from Covington. The road we traveled is very smooth and level. The Missouri bottom here is some 18 or 15 miles wide and, […]

Health Sciences Rare Books is one of the collections located in the Archives and Special Collections. This collection consists mostly of medical books donated to the Lommen Health Science Library. While the majority of the items are books, the collection does include anatomical stereograms, one movie film, and two video tape cassettes. Some of the […]

Did you know there is an Oscar Howe designed mural in Vermillion, South Dakota? See the web site for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Vermillion (and then the Church Life tab) or the Oscar Howe papers at the Archives and Special Collections for more information.

American mathematician Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler is best known for leading a successful career in mathematics in the early twentieth century, a time when few women worked in the field. She was the first woman to lecture before the American Mathematical Society, and she was influential in shaping the mathematics department at Bryn Mawr College. […]

Mary Beaty Edelen served in the South Dakota House of Representatives from 1973 to 1980 and from 1983 to 1992, representing Clay and Union Counties and becoming the first woman legislator elected from her district. She was the president of the National Order of Women Legislators in 1986 and on the executive board of the […]

When I took the graduate class in historiography in Fall 2016 as a requirement of the Master’s degree program in USD’s history department, I was very excited when my professor Dr. Molly Rozum announced that the class would be working directly with historical materials in the USD archives. My class had the responsibility of doing […]

Three copper engravings from Description de l’Egypte were recently added to the Mahoney Music Collection. These plates are from Antiquities volumes 2 and 5 and show individuals playing harps. Each measure about 30” x 22”, with one in color and the others in grey tones. These images spark my curiosity. What did early Egyptian harp […]

The Volante, the student newspaper at the University of South Dakota, was started in November of 1887 and continues to this day. USD historian Cedric Cummins wrote that “The strange title had been derived from a French word signifying ‘flying’. ” (The University of South Dakota, 1862-1966, p.36) The Archives and Special Collections has the Volantes on paper, […]

It’s that time of year again! Halloween is slowly approaching once again. If you are a book lover and very festive during this time of year, come take a look in the Archives and Special Collections. We have some very interesting and spooky stories up here. From documents of ghost towns to books with […]

Archives and Special Collections recently received a 1925 report about the Standing Rock Reservation written by E.D. Mossman for a visiting congressional committee. Shown below is one of the pages from this report. [Update: Report to the members of the visiting Congressional Committee regarding the Standing Rock Indian Agency, Fort Yates, North Dakota has now […]