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This article, published in Volume 7 of The Volante (Issue 3, December 1893, pp. 41-42), poetically describes the personal and philosophical significance of photography. The author E. Frank Peterson explains that as “we gaze upon that faded picture we forget our present environments, we live again in the blissful past, and again we pluck the […]

Herbert S. Schell was appointed the first University Archivist in 1968. He was largely responsible for organizing The University of South Dakota’s historical records into the USD Archives. Between 1968 and 1971, his extensive letter-writing campaign added the professional and personal papers of many prominent South Dakotans to the Richardson Collection. Schell joined the USD History Department in 1925. From 1936-1964, he served as the director and dean of the Graduate School.

Are any of your favorite books set in an archive or a rare book library? Do they involve characters doing archival research? Here are a few of my favorite fiction books that feature archives or rare books.

The Well-Tempered String Quartet was published in Germany in 1936 and in the United States in 1938. The book’s title may remind the thoughtful reader of the title of Johann Sebastian Bach’s eighteenth-century collection of preludes and fugues, The Well-Tempered Clavier. The reader would be correct in drawing such comparisons, as stated in the Translator’s Note: “The ‘Well-tempered’ of the […]

Next week, outside the Archives and Special Collections, we will be exhibiting material from the C.B. Kennedy Papers in the display case on 3rd floor. This collection contains correspondence and souvenirs from Cornelius B. Kennedy, a businessman and circuit judge who moved to Canton, South Dakota in 1849. Also in the collection are manuscripts, drawings, and […]

The Archives and Special Collections has recently received a 1799 edition of the Farmer’s Almanack. This periodical, which changed its name to the Old Farmer’s Almanac in 1832, is the oldest continuously published periodical in the United States and “has captured America’s fancy with its homespun admixture of fact, fun and folklore.” The almanack is […]

The Black Hills flood of June 9, 1972 is of particular interest to the author of this post, being a native of Rapid City. The unusually heavy rainfall that caused the flood and the death and destruction it left behind make it one of the state’s worst-ever natural disasters. While exploring the Black Hills books that are […]

Cecil Forsyth (b. 1870 – d. 1941) was an English composer and violist. He wrote mostly choral works, but he also composed a concerto for viola. Additionally, he published a famous book on orchestration that can be found in the Mahoney collection, titled Orchestration. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, it […]

This section from a 1915 South Dakota map shows Cedar Pass Scenic Highway that went from the Oacoma area to Interior. In the 1920s and before, many roads in the United States received names. They were often associated with a booster group which collected dues and published trail guides and newsletters. Please contact us if you […]

Short poem printed in the May 1892 issue of The Volante.

The Schell Collection contains 85 George McGovern pins and buttons. Some of the pins include his wife, Eleanor, as well.

Eldridge Cleaver ran for president in 1968 under the Peace and Freedom party.

The Schell Collection contains pin of candidates who did not win the election as well. This pin is from Thomas Dewey’s campaign. It suggests a comparison between President F.D.R. and Hitler.

The Schell Collection contains 47 Jimmy Carter pins and buttons. The collection also includes a Billy Beer can and maps and brochures of Plains, Georgia, President Carter’s hometown.

The Schell Collection also contains several pins and buttons relating to South Dakota.

The Schell Collection contains 3 pins relating to Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential campaigns.

The staff from the Archives and Special Collections needs your help in identifying this pin. Our assumption is that it is from World War II, but we would like to have more information. Please comment if you have any more information about this pin.

The Schell Collection contains 10 pins relating to the William McKinley Political Campaigns. One such pin is shown below.

This summer students processed Allan H. Schell’s Collection of Political Buttons, Pins, and Political Ephemera. The collection includes over 1,000 pins and buttons dating from the 1884 Presidential Campaign to the 2000 Presidential Campaign. In addition, the collection contains pins and buttons relating to South Dakota’s gubernatorial and senatorial elections beginning in 1901.