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This blog describes life of a young person as a rancher and teacher in Tripp and Gregory Counties in the first quarter of the twentieth century. These were changing times in South Dakota involving settlers and indigenous peoples.

The Archives and Special Collections has a compilation (i.e. bill book) of South Dakota Legislature House Bills from 1890. D. M. Inman’s signature is on the first page. South Dakota became a state in 1889, and the state's first session of the legislative assembly met in 1890. Darwin M. Inman (1838-1913) was a businessman, politician and educator from Vermillion. He served as a representative from Clay County to Dakota Territory and South Dakota Legislature in 1877-1878, 1881-

In an article published in South Dakota History on December 27, 1989, Governor George S. Mickelson reflected on the first hundred years of South Dakota as a State. Governor Mickelson remarked that President Benjamin Harrison signed proclamations in 1889 forming four states: South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington. To commemorate the 100th birthday of South Dakota, the South Dakota Centennial Commission created a vision for grass roots, volunteer-directed groups o

This is an image of Dr. Karl Wegner and Dean John Day flanking a bronze bust of Governor Peter Norbeck. The bust was part of the USD Art Collection and is located in Old Main, room 118.

First started by fur traders, Dakota Territory trading posts provided places for patrons to meet, have a drink of whiskey or two, purchase items needed for everyday living or work, obtain jobs, get a room for the night, or obtain a ride to another town. Cuthbert DuCharme (“Old Pap”), a French-Canadian fur trader, arrived in […]

The I. D. Weeks Library hosts its digital collections in the Digital Library of South Dakota. Highlighted here is Andreas’ Historical Atlas of Dakota, published by A. T. Andreas in Chicago in 1884, and is part of the Herman P. Chilson Collection of Western Americana. The term “atlas” refers to a collection of maps. This […]

The following collections in the Archives and Special Collections have information about the Pathfinder Atomic Power Plant: Ralph Herseth papers, box 61 Herbert Samuel Schell Papers, box 17

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 […]

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?

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 […]

These are in the Archives and Special Collections. In the I.D. Weeks Library are the reports of the South Dakota Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The earliest one in the library is dated March 1963 and is about discrimination against Black airmen (especially with housing, restaurants, and bars) in Rapid […]

Some events are listed in this flyer from the Archives and Special Collection’s folder on the South Dakota State Fair.

The Archives and Special Collections recently received buttons (or pins) related to this event. For the full story of how Southern State College became the University of South Dakota/Springfield, and then a state minimum-security prison, consult the William J. Janklow papers at the Archives and Special Collections and read “Closing Time: A Twenty-Five-Year Retrospective On […]

Images are from the South Dakota State Fair Collection, Archives and Special Collections, University of South Dakota. Also in this collection is a list of the 1923 Women’s Building events at the fair. The National Archives sponsors #ArchivesHashtagParty once a month, and July’s topic is #ArchivesVacay. They invite archives to submit information about summer vacation […]

This collection is mainly correspondence about the Academy’s 1928-1930 annual meetings. The letters and programs make a stack of papers about an inch thick. This is one of the most fun collections I have processed. Members are so excited to tell each other what is new in science. At their 1928 banquet, they saw a […]

Archives and Special Collections recently received 4 photographs of this observance.

On this election day, Archives and Special Collections has added a list of Dakota Territory’s governors and delegates and a list of South Dakota’s governors, U.S. senators, and U.S. representatives to its online site. If you notice any misspellings or other errors, please let us know. The link will take you to: The location of […]

On November 7, 1922, South Dakotans were asked to vote whether to move the University from Vermillion to Sioux Falls. This initiated law lost, and it had the lowest yes vote of any initiated law in the years analyzed by Alan Clem, i.e., 1889-1960 (page 35). Shown in the image are the constitutional amendments (CA) […]

Eastern part of SD was in Iowa Territory 1838–1846. Eastern part of SD was in Minnesota Territory 1849–1858. Western part of SD was in Nebraska Territory 1854–1861. SD was entirely in Dakota Territory 1861-1889. The original boundaries of Dakota Territory are shown on the first map below. The final boundaries are shown in the second […]