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Although the Oral History Project consists primarily of University of South Dakota interviewers’ tapes of South Dakotans, other institutions donated in their interview tapes to the University of South Dakota Oral History Center. This blog describes a 1968 interview by John Troth and Richard Cropp, Friends of the Middle Border Museum (now the Discovery Museum at Dakota Wesleyan University). They interviewed Yankton historian Joseph Vinateri and his daughter Mrs. Vanita Grimm a

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.

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 […]