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In honor of the 50th anniversary of the I.D. Weeks Library building, the Archives and Special Collections has organized a special exhibit to display the changes of the USD library through the years, from the beginning of the university in 1882 through today. The first exhibit on the second floor of I.D. Weeks focuses on […]

“Books remain one of the strongest bulwarks we have against tyranny – but only as long as people are free to read all different kinds of books, and only as long as they actually do so.” Books for Living by Will Schwalbe, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017, p.257. National Library Week is April 9 […]

Mahoney Music Collection has books and journals with beautiful illustrations and photographs of musical instruments. Here are a few: Buonanni, Filippo. Gabinetto armonico pieno d’instromenti ti sonori, indicati, spiegati, e di nuovo corretti ed accresciuti. Roma: Nella stamperia di G. Placho, 1723. ML460 .B94 1723 Hipkins, Alfred J. Musical instruments, historic, […]

Was a professor from the University of South Dakota, Dr. Marjorie Eastwood Dudley (1891-1961), the first woman in America to write a symphony for a major orchestra? (The South Dakotan, November 1977, p. 3) It would be fun to find what symphony she wrote and for which orchestra. Maybe the answer is in her papers, which were […]

Archives and Special Collections recently received a scrapbook created by A. L. Wilson. This scrapbook contains approximately 80 programs for voice student recitals, university choir, and other music groups from 1916 to 1965, plus a few news clippings. It complements another collection we have of music programs. Alvin Leroy (A. L.) Wilson taught […]

I recently found the note below in a book called The People’s Problem and Its Solution by William H. Lyon and copyrighted in 1886. This book was published by the author and printed by Press Job Print, Sioux Falls, Dakota Territory. The note is: “Please accept this work with the complements of the author. It […]

The USD alumni newsletters are fast becoming my favorite source for USD history. To be useful, these newsletters need an index or to be in a searchable format unless, like me, you are looking for random and interesting tidbits about USD. An example of a random and interesting article is “U.S. Naval Weapons Lab likes girls from South Dakota” in […]

Charles Trimble was born in Wanblee SD in 1935. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from USD in 2008 for his distinguished record of public service and was inducted in the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2013. Below are listed some of the organizations Mr. Trimble has served: American Indian Press […]

In the Archives and Special Collections, we have examples of schoolwork that were part of the South Dakota education exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. USD president, Joseph Mauck, was the head South Dakota education exhibit for the fair (Cummins, The University of South Dakota 1862-1966, p. 51).

Growing up just a half hour away from Mt. Rushmore, I can tell you that the beauty and grandeur is as great as the hype about it is. Though as a Rapid City native I have not visited the monument as often as one would guess, really I can count on my hands and feet […]

The Osborne Collection of Early English Children’s books, were donated by Edgar Osborne, to the Toronto Public Library after he visited the library in 1934. He was so impressed with their children’s program that he donated 2,000 books to the library. Since then the collection has grown into a large collection of over 80,000 children’s […]

To me every trip to a library or archive is like a small detective story. There are always little moments on such trips when the past flares to life, like a match in the darkness. Larson, Erik. The devil in the white city: murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America. New York: […]

Here are a few helpful tips for the lucky ones visiting an archive. Give yourself enough time. Looking through archival collections is time-consuming, and you will need more time than you expect. Believe me. Check with the archival staff beforehand and ask them a lot of questions. Will they be open the days you want […]

To learn more about Labor Day and labor issues in South Dakota, check out the Albert J. Maag papers in the Archives and Special Collections. Albert J. Maag (1891-1965) was the president of the South Dakota State Federation of Labor. This collection contains correspondence, minutes of the annual AFL conventions, and yearbooks of the […]

I have been waiting. Image from Catalogue of the University of South Dakota for the year 1892-3.

You can see photographs from the early days of the Casa Grande National Monument and Frank Pinkley in the Mabel Townsley Papers at the Archives and Special Collections. “The General Land Office took over management of the ruins and hired a young man named Frank Pinkley in 1901 to be the first on-site […]

The Allan H. Schell Collection of Campaign Buttons, Pins, And Political Ephemera was created by Allan H. Schell, and chiefly contains political pins, buttons, posters, pennants, and ephemera related to United States and South Dakota political positions in the 20th century. Pins from US Presidential and SD Gubernatorial campaigns are on display in the […]

Freshmen Initiation Friday, September 19, 1913, otherwise known as Black Friday, the newly acquired graduating class of 1917, gathered outside of Main Hall (today one could assume they meant Old Main) promptly at 7:30 pm to begin their journey through the time honored tradition of hazing the incoming freshmen. Though this practice has gone by the […]

The first week of May everyone on campus was cramming for finals and preparing for summer. I was in the same boat as everyone else, cramming for finals and preparing to head home for a week. It was within that week that I was informed that a position in the archives was open and I […]

Archives and Special Collections recently received the 1920 edition of the Official Automobile Blue Book. This is a great resource for anyone interested in the history of roads because it gives a description of the automobile routes in our area before the Good Roads Movement. The book includes a general index map of routes described in […]