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Sperry, Kip. Reading Early American Handwriting. Genealogical Pub. Co., 1998. RICHARDSON COLLECTION Z115.A5 R43 1998.

The archivist and staff of the Archives and Special Collections write guides to our collections, papers, and records called finding aids and collection inventories. Some of the finding aids and collection inventories finished during 2024: Crow Creek Site collection Day (John) collection on Arthur Amiotte Fahsing (William Frederick) papers Gallup-Livingston (Mary) papers Holm (Richard) notebook […]

The year 1972 marked the 83rd year of football at USD and the 50th anniversary of the North Central conference (NCC). The last time USD football won the NCC championship was in 1951. A combination of an impressive and talented football team and excellent coaching under head coach Joe Salem, winner the District Six Coach […]

Beatrice Chaffee was the first and only woman chair of the Department of Music at the University of South Dakota (USD). Her background was in music education. Ms. Chaffee taught music and choir to K-12 grades in schools in Pennsylvania, Iowa and South Dakota. In 1961 she received her Master of Music Degree from USD […]

The Archives and Special Collections has many Vermillion newspapers, but we don’t have the Dakota Republicans before 1923. You can find this 1869 ad in the Digital Archives at the Vermillion Public Library.

Y2K was a potential computer problem that could have occurred when the year changed from 1999 to 2000. The William J. Janklow papers contain information about the taskforce that was formed to solve any issues that may materialize in South Dakota.

Theatre at the University of South Dakota (USD) has a long history involving student clubs, academic units, and the Black Hills Playhouse. The USD theatre program educates students in skills needed for acting and behind the scenes activities such as costume, set, and prop design and production. Students also learn about play writing, and the […]

Do you want to serve a tasty Christmas meal that is not roasted turkey? We have a cookbook with great ideas for you in the Archives and Special Collections: The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman and Beth Dooley, call number CHILSON COLLECTION / 3RD FLOOR ; E98.F7 S54 2017. There are many cookbooks in the […]

By 1970, at the University of South Dakota (USD), Upward Bound and Special Services helped promising high school Native students prepare for college, and once in college, lent them cultural and academical support. In addition, student led clubs, such as the Wapaha Club, started in 1957, and later the Tiospaye Student Council, became advocates for […]

I found this great birds-eye view the of the USD campus in the Bulletin of the University of South Dakota, Announcement of the College of Medicine 1910-1911 (July 1910), Health Science Archives W 19.5 AS8 U58c. Notice how the main buildings make a u-shape. University catalogs (which were sometimes published as part of the Bulletin […]

This mosaic was compiled by the Remote Sensing Institute at SDSU in Brookings, SD, in 1973 using satellite images from the first human-made Earth-observing satellite designed to study and monitor our planet’s landmasses. The satellite carried a camera and a scanner sensitive to four spectral bands (green, red, and two infrared bands). This map is […]

In the summer of 1970 revered and highly respected traditional Oglala Sioux Teton chief, civic leader, and healer, Andrew Frank Fools Crow (circa 1890-1989) visited the University of South Dakota (USD) and met with students in the Upward Bound program. The purpose of the Upward Bound Program, started in 1966 at USD under the Institute […]

Unfinished Revolutions Power of Place We the People American Experiment Doing History These themes are suggested by the American Association for State and Local History in their pamphlet “The Field Guide for the Semiquincentennial Making History at 250”. Happy Archives Month

These are some of the named automobile routes in South Dakota in 1920: Yellowstone Trail – Ortonville, MN to Hettinger, ND – marked on map with orange. Black and Yellow Trail – Tracy, MN to Sundance, WY – marked on map with yellow. Custer Battlefield Hiway – Sioux City, IA to Sundance, WY – marked […]

We couldn’t find a photograph from the first South Dakota Legislative Session, but the Archives and Special Collections does have a picture from the fifteenth (1917) Session with the legislators’ names written right on the photograph. This photograph is from the William Lyon collection. Can you find him in this mosaic?

#ArchivesHashtagParty asked archives across the USA to share their favorite repetitive designs and patterns for #ArchivesPatterns. We love the piano keyboard pattern on one of the local National Music Museum buildings.

Information about this time capsule was discovered in the Volante (student newspaper). The April 27, 1994, issue has a photograph of two women standing before a wall under construction and holding a 3 feet x 1 foot plywood box. The picture caption tells us that the capsule was sponsored by the USD Student Association and […]

William Lyon was born and grew up in Vermillion, SD. His widow Winona Lyon donated the land containing the beautiful palisades to the state of South Dakota. Additional land will be added to the park during the summer of 2024, doubling the size of the park. Palisades State Park is one of the most unique […]

We found a self-recorded 78 phonograph dated 1949 in our USD Phonograph collection. It was in Modern Electric Co.’s. bag. Did Modern Electric or the University of South Dakota have the equipment needed to record onto a blank phonograph?