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Peter Norbeck’s papers (SD governor 1917-1921 and US senator 1921-1936) has a folder titled Thirty Hour Week. Archie Gubbrud’s papers (SD governor 1960-1964) has a folder titled Forty Hour Week. Was there a discussion about working thirty hours per week before there was a discussion about the forty-hour work week? Both sets of papers are […]

The image is from the Digital Library of South Dakota. Library of Congress sponsors #ArchivesHashtagParty once a month, and August’s topic is #ArchivesAthletes. LOC invites archives to submit tweets about athletes who broke records and barriers, famous sites for training and competition, patents for sport equipment, or historic moments that still give you goosebumps.

Map of the Ceded Part of Dakota Territory: Showing Also Portions of Minnesota, Iowa & Nebraska, Smith, B. M., et al, 1861. Archives and Special Collection has this map in the Chilson Collection with the call number 4130 S64 1861. The inset map in the upper left corner shows the entire Dakota Territory and its boundaries.

At 33 inches by 25 inches and weighing more than 50 pounds, this lunar atlas is the largest book in the Archives and Special Collection at USD. The moon was photographed through the Observatory of Paris’ telescope in the late 1890s, and the photographs used to produce photogravure plates for the atlas. Library of Congress […]

The atlases contained information on routes, hotels, gas stations, car repair shops, road conditions (including which roads to avoid when it is muddy and which roads had sharp turns). The ads in the book are beautiful and informative about car culture. Volume Ten is in the Archives and Special Collections. Library of Congress sponsors #ArchivesHashtagParty […]

Though the name never appeared on a map, the bend of the Missouri River south of Burbank, SD was called Negro Bend. The French named it after a local settlement of Black woodcutters who sold fuel wood to steamboats. On many maps, the region is called Kate Sweeney Bend, after a steamboat that sunk in […]

Check out the food enjoyed by Ruth Egge and her family while on a cruise ship in 1910. From the Ruth March Egge Papers. Richardson Collections. Archives and Special Collections. University of South Dakota.

Recently added to the Archives and Special Collections website are instructions for navigating and searching through finding aids on ArchivesSpace: The Archives and Special Collections department is moving our Richardson Collection finding aids to ArchivesSpace. Though the physical location and the format of the finding aids are changing, you can continue to access the finding […]

They are land ownership maps. The Archives and Special Collections has many cadastral maps, both as sheet maps and in atlases. Library records for most of these maps and atlases are in the library catalog and can be found using subject terms and key words such as cadastral, real property maps, landowner maps, land use, […]

– about past United States epidemics are in the Archives and Special Collections in the Health Sciences Rare Books Collection: Carey, Mathew. A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia: With a Statement of the Proceedings That Took Place on the Subject in Different Parts of the United States. 3d Ed., Improved. […]

The Alan H. Schell Collection of Campaign Buttons, Pins, and Political Ephemera contains 2 watches in addition to nearly one thousand pins, buttons, and ribbons that date from 1884 to 2008. Can you tell which watch was meant to support a candidate and which one was meant to lampoon a candidate?

and that the Archives and Special Collections is not a scary place.

Archives and Special Collections recently received: The water cure: archaeological investigations at the sanitarium and bath house, Cascade Springs, South Dakota. Abstract: “The Water Cure is an overview of the growth of health tourism in the southern Black Hill of South Dakota during the 1890s. During this era, medical doctors believed in the curative powers […]

When did the USD football team play Notre Dame? 1913-1917 Information from The history of intercollegiate football, basketball, track, and baseball at the State University of South Dakota, Richard T. Haase, USD M.A. thesis. Consult Haase’s thesis to find out if USD beat Norte Dame and when. Image of USD football team from Digital Library […]

The Archives and Special Collections has a 1970s poster promoting the Library with the caption “Looking for a date? Visit the I. D. Weeks Library.” What do you think, can 1970s attitudes towards dating and women in universities be inferred from this poster? If so, are current attitudes the same or different?

From the William Lyon Papers, Archives and Special Collections.

according to a book in Chilson Collection with this title. Hint – many of the letters that look like a “f” are actually a “s”.

to USD’s COVID-19 Experiences Project? Don’t be shy. I will let you read two of my less-than-great haikus, written at different stages of the pandemic: Ha, TP hoarding Funny until you run out Shelves are still empty Please don’t come near me Your breath and touch dangerous I so want to live

-while at the time having a region called New South Wales in a book with a long title in the Chilson Collection in the Archives and Special Collections: Payne, John. A New and Complete System of Universal Geography; Describing Asia, Africa, Europe and America; with Their Subdivisions of Republics, States, Empires, and Kingdoms: The […]

Autobiographies by Lewis Akeley and Edward Churchill have vivid descriptions and fun stories centered around their teaching experiences at the University of South Dakota. Akeley’s book covers approximately 1887 to 1933. Churchill’s book covers approximately 1920 to 1961. My favorite stories are Churchill’s description of the campus in 1920 and how it felt to teach […]