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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?

Incipit laus Sancti Bernardi Abatis; Laus de Virgine Maria: Ave mater misericordie may be the oldest book in the Archives and Special Collections. I found this description of the book on a sheet of letterhead paper tucked into the book: “Manuscript on paper, written in a fine formal book hand. 28 lines. 12 leaves (the […]

Thursday, April 18, 20244:00-6:00pm IDW 3rd Floor 321Join us for refreshments, guided tours, interactive stations and guest speakers.

Charles Burney’s and John Hawkins’s multi-volume histories were both published in London in the late 1700s (around 1776.) How are they different, and how are they similar? Why did the authors say negative comments about the other’s history?

Dr. Cable received B.A. (1926) and M.A. (1927) degrees from the University of South Dakota. She worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, later called the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, from 1927 to 1970.

I would eat a cake decorated to look like concrete letters surrounded by green bushes. How about you? Click here for the location and history of the University of South Dakota hillside letters, This year marks the 162nd anniversary of the establishment of the University by the first Dakota Territory Legislature in 1862, 141th anniversary […]

La Chirurgie: Codex Sloane 1977 is a full color facsimile of a unique 13th century illuminated French medical atlas. At first glance, it looks like a medieval graphic novel. Many of its 28 pages contain a three panel by three panel grid of framed scenes with human figures on alternating blue and red background.. The […]

In 2026, the United States of America will observe its 250th anniversary. We will be searching our Archives and Special Collections for material to highlight the creation of the USA. So far, we have found material related to the Bicentennial. Contact us if you have suggestions. Follow this link for more information about Buell’s map.