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This collection of letters between Gordon Aadland and Al Neuharth is now open for research. Aadland and Neuharth met at the University of South Dakota, where they both worked on the student newspaper the Volante. Aadland graduated in 1949 and Neuharth in 1950. After college, both worked on SoDak Sports, a statewide weekly newspaper on […]

The Mahoney Music Collection in the Archives and Special Collections contains wonderful books related to violin construction, which include but are not restricted to books about varnishes and woods. Below is just a sample. Hammerl, Josef, Reiner Hammerl and Jess Nierenberg. Violin varnishes: interesting information on resins and basic materials for violin varnish and […]

The Archives and Special Collections has the Map of the Missouri River: from its mouth to Three Forks, Montana, published by the Missouri River Commission in 1892-1895 on eighty-four sheets plus nine index sheets. With this mapping expedition, “modern mapping had arrived, and the river was now mapped with precision from its mouth to Three […]

Did you know there was a plan to build the United Nations headquarters in Rapid City, South Dakota? See the Paul E. Bellamy Papers in the Archives and Special Collections for more information.

Well, this is it. It’s my last day. Today I get to turn in my key, submit my last time sheet, and clean up all my files on the computer, and I have to take home my sweater, wrist warmers, blanket, and refillable Einstein Bros. coffee mug . . . plus say goodbye to probably the […]

The Archives and Special Collections has recently digitized Pierre Baillot’s Methode de violon from the Mahoney Music Collection. This French treatise was published in 1793 with contributions from Pierre Rode and Rodolphe Kreutzer. It can be viewed, with a number of other treatises from the collection, on the Digital Library of South Dakota.

Summer projects in the archives can be tedious, monotonous, and seemingly endless. Luckily (this time) I got something fun . . . The expansive Mahoney Music Collection is slowly being cataloged by the University library, and much of what is yet uncataloged lives in file cabinets and is simply called “Mahoney pamphlets” — though most […]

Have you seen the concrete USD letters? They can be found by going to lower Vermillion and turning east on Burbank Road. The letters are in the vicinity of the golf course. This project “ … was a successful effort by the Vermillion Association of Women’s Clubs (Civic Council) to construct large white USD letters on the hillside […]

The following articles are from June 14, 1883, and July 19, 1883 issues of the Dakota Huronite newspaper. Typescript copies of some of the issues of this paper are in the Chilson Collection. Does anyone know how long this steamboat operated?

Maganga By A.M. (Alfons Michael) Dauer Trephination, the act or process of making a hole in the skull by drilling and/or removing a piece of the bone, is believed by many to be an early form of brain surgery. It is found in Neolithic Europe, pre-Columbian America and in other places in the world during […]

In 1665 “the English Royal Society published the first popular science book, Micrographia, (with the subtitle Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon). It was written by Robert Hooke, then a 30-year-old hunchbacked, cantankerous, neurotic hypochondriac who was also a brilliant natural scientist, polymath and an […]

Today is the 100th anniversary of Joe Foss’s birth. The following summary is from the guide to his papers at the Archives and Special Collections: Collection size 21 linear ft. “Joseph J. Foss remains an important figure in South Dakota history. He was born on a farm outside of Sioux Falls, South Dakota on April […]

We are honored to have a collection of Vietnam War veterans’ oral history transcripts in the Archives and Special Collections. This collection contains interviews with 33 veterans from central South Dakota gathered between September 1984 and December 1985. “Their service in Southeast Asia spans 1961 through 1975 and covers a wide variety of combat and […]

The Archives and Special Collections has acquired Cuthbert DuCharme’s (also known as Old Papineau) trading post ledger. The post was located along the Missouri River and the military road near present-day Geddes, South Dakota. The ledger covers the years 1869 to 1872. For information on DuCharme see John Andrews et al, South Dakota Outlaws and […]

The Archives and Special Collections has a small collection of General Land Office maps. The Black Hills maps are supplemental plats, extension surveys, and dependent resurveys with dates between 1927 and 1932. They show mineral surveys, mine names, homestead entry surveys, homesteader names, forest reserves, sections with subdivisions, surveyor names and sometimes relief. The Cheyenne […]

This year will mark the 175th anniversary of the death of the legendary violinist Nicoló Paganini. Regarded as the most famous violinist of all time, Paganini is remembered in history for his supreme virtuosity and technique, but his life is also shadowed in mystery and lore. Born in 1782, Paganini spent most of his childhood in Genoa, […]

The Archives and Special Collections has a collection of 386 maps that we believe are associated with the Great Depression federal relief programs. All the maps are identified to a town or county in South Dakota. Most indicate the type of project they are associated with, such as street surfacing. Most have dates from 1939 […]

Charles Hall Dillon was South Dakota’s representative to the U.S. Congress 1913-1919. He was also a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1900 and 1908, a member of the state senate 1903-1911, and an associate justice of the state supreme court 1922-1926. He was born near Jasper, Indiana in 1853 and died in […]

“Joseph [William Lincoln] Parmley [1861-1940] wore many hats during his career – homesteader, stockman, publisher, real-estate agent, politician, promoter of Missouri River development, and advocate of world peace. He is best remembered, however, for his work for good roads in South Dakota and his role in creating the Yellowstone Trail (United State Highway 12).” […]