All Posts

You’ll want to read Civil Defense In-Shelter Guide for University of South Dakota (November 18, 1963) to find out what learning to love crackers has to do with bomb shelters. It is in the USD Archives collection General Publications. Do you know what movie title I am misquoting for my title? Hint, it came out in […]

It is a fun day in the Archives and Special Collections when we get a batch of Mahoney Music Collection books back from the catalogers. The library at the University of South Dakota is in the process of creating catalog records for all the books in the Mahoney Music Collection. Having catalog records in the […]

Nineteenth century General Land Office surveyors wrote descriptions of landforms, soil, water, vegetation and wildlife in their field notebooks while they were surveying in the midwest and western United States. These notebooks are used by researchers reconstructing the ecology of an area during a particular slice of time. Surveyors vary in how much detail they […]

The Archives and Special Collections has this book in the Oscar Howe Papers: O. H. Bonnell, Translation of the Sioux Indian Language into English: figures, money, definitions, words, sentences, &c. Chamberlain, Dakota Territory: Democrat Print. 1880. 8 pages. 19 cm. [Update: Translation of the Sioux Indian language into English; Figures, money definitions, words, sentences, etc. […]

Beginning to work at the Archives and Special Collections department at USD’s I.D. Weeks Library seemed to be a little mysterious at first. What would I find in that special back room? Will I be putting books back on shelves all day? Will I be able to listen to music?! These concerns were alive and […]

The Archives and Special Collections has recently received five 1968 aerial photographs showing parts of Vermillion or areas close to Vermillion. These photos show that in 1968 not much of the town or the University of South Dakota was north of Cherry Street, and that the Mulberry Bend area looked very different before the construction […]

The Chilson Collection of Western Americana has many Dakota Territory and South Dakota books and journals and a few surprises. I found this early South Dakota chronology in The Monthly South Dakotan, March 1899, vol. 1 no. 11, pages 191-193. May contain offensive language.

During the 1980s and 1990s, University of South Dakota commencement program covers often presented brief descriptions of USD buildings. In 2004, this building was remodeled and renamed the Dean Belbas Center. It houses Undergraduate Admissions, Financial Aid and the Office of the Registrar.

This year, one of my personal projects is to find out more about Fort Vermillion. When did it exist and where? Here is what I know so far: Fort Vermillion was a trading post established by Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and Company along the Missouri River in the vicinity of what is now Vermillion, South Dakota. […]

During the 1980s and 1990s, University of South Dakota commencement program covers often presented brief descriptions of USD buildings.

The South Dakota Oral History Project’s first year was described in a 1970 South Dakota History article. “This past summer an oral history project was inaugurated in South Dakota. Five thousand dollars was funded by the state legislature at the request of Dayton Canaday, State Historian, and Professor Joseph Cash of the University of South Dakota. Professor Cash and Mr. Canaday suggested to the state legislature that a project be initiated among white settlers while reminis

Today while working with the Oscar Howe Papers, I found the following short statement by Oscar Howe about Vincent Price, “…for forteen (sic) years, Vincent was commissioner of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior. Just last year, he requested that he be replaced by a Native American, an Indian. […]

I felt that I could start this blog post with some cheer before I say my farewells. Since winter break is coming up and the holiday season is nigh, I thought I would dig through the Archives and Special Collections for some Christmas-related items. The object that caught my eye was Ellen S. Mills’ diaries, of the […]

Collections held by the Archives and Special Collections: Arthur Amiotte Oscar Howe Robert Penn Charles Trimble Cato Valandra Rosebud Yellow Robe Image of Charles Trimble from the Digital Library of South Dakota.

I recently found this interesting article “The University and the War Call”, by Robert W. Jones, Dept. of Journalism, USD Bulletin Series XVIII, No. 3, April 1918 in a collection called USD Publications. The article tells us that hanging in the chapel was a flag with 200 stars, one for “every man now in […]

Herbert S. Schell Annual Lecture in History is Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015, in Farber Hall at 7:00 pm. The presentation is “Crescent City Girls: the Jim Crow Justice System and Black Girlhood in New Orleans” by LaKisha Simmons. She is an assistant professor of global gender studies at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. The lecture […]

Did your grandparents or great-grandparents attend the University of South Dakota? The Archives and Special Collections has the following sources to help you find out. Sources listing graduates and those who attended but did not graduate: University Catalogs, 1883-1884 school year to the current school year. Early catalogs often list enrollees. Coyote Yearbooks, 1903 through 1986. Student, […]

The Student Activities Council, Program Council poster collection is now open to researchers. It consists mainly of posters advertising events at the University of South Dakota sponsored by the Program Council. The events include concerts, movies, lectures, speakers, Dakota Days, the opening of the Muenster University Center (MUC), Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Wacipi. […]

Archiving is not about history looking backward, but about storing and securing for the future. Archiving – all the activities from creation and management to the use of records and archives – has always been directed towards transmitting human activity and experience through time and, secondly, through space. It has the quality of the archive […]

On Thursday October 1, 2015, archivists around the country will join you on Twitter to answer all questions archival. Sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, you can learn more about how archivists are working every day to preserve historical materials like photographs, documents, audio and video and digital materials. If you have always wondered […]