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Andrew Frank Fools Crow & Upward Bound
In the summer of 1970 revered and highly respected traditional Oglala Sioux Teton chief, civic leader, and healer, Andrew Frank Fools Crow (circa 1890-1989) visited the University of South Dakota (USD) and met with students in the Upward Bound program. The purpose of the Upward Bound Program, started in 1966 at USD under the Institute […]
Kyle Gruhn
Oct 29, 20242 min read
Five themes to research for the 250th anniversary of the United States
Unfinished Revolutions Power of Place We the People American Experiment Doing History These themes are suggested by the American Association for State and Local History in their pamphlet “The Field Guide for the Semiquincentennial Making History at 250”. Happy Archives Month
Doris Peterson
Oct 18, 20241 min read
Before the mid-1920s, #ArchivesOnTheRoad could have cruised the Sunshine Highway in South Dakota in a Fawick Flyer.
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 […]
Doris Peterson
Oct 4, 20241 min read
A Musical Meeting
At the end of 1969 Usher Abell stepped down as Chair of the Department of Music at the University of South Dakota (USD), a position he held since 1952. Abell was a well-respected, talented violinist, director of the USD orchestra, and teacher of string instruments promoting music education locally and nationally. Usher Abell, Agnes Ringley, […]
Kyle Gruhn
Sep 26, 20241 min read
100th South Dakota Legislative Session is in 2025.
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?
Doris Peterson
Sep 17, 20241 min read
What is that pattern?
#ArchivesHashtagParty asked archives across the USA to share their favorite repetitive designs and patterns for #ArchivesPatterns. We love the piano keyboard pattern on one of the local National Music Museum buildings.
Doris Peterson
Sep 6, 20241 min read
Do you know where the time capsule is in the library walls?
Information about this time capsule was discovered in the Volante (student newspaper). The April 27, 1994, issue has a photograph of two women standing before a wall under construction and holding a 3 feet x 1 foot plywood box. The picture caption tells us that the capsule was sponsored by the USD Student Association and […]
Doris Peterson
Aug 23, 20241 min read
President Dwight Eisenhower’s Letter to Dean Lewis Akeley
President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote a letter to University of South Dakota (USD) Dean Lewis E. Akeley dated May 26, 1958. At that time Dean Akeley was 97 years old. He arrived at the University of Dakota in 1887 (South Dakota became as state in 1889) and was a faculty member for 74 years. Akeley […]
Kyle Gruhn
Aug 20, 20242 min read
The 1967 move of the W. H. Over Museum to the Carnegie Building: Arne Larson and Bobby Penn
In 1967 the University of South Dakota (USD) library moved out of the Carnegie Building it occupied since 1911. An addition to the building doubled its capacity in 1940, but 25 years later it was too small to accommodate the increased needs of the students and faculty. The building became home to a museum. That […]
Kyle Gruhn
Aug 6, 20242 min read
What connects Vermillion, SD and Palisades State Park?
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 […]
Doris Peterson
May 20, 20241 min read
Was there a place in Vermillion SD in the 1940s that had audio recording equipment?
We found a self-recorded 78 phonograph dated 1949 in our USD Phonograph collection. It was in Modern Electric Co.’s. bag. Did Modern Electric or the University of South Dakota have the equipment needed to record onto a blank phonograph?
Doris Peterson
May 6, 20241 min read
University of South Dakota Commencement of June 6, 1966: A Tribute to President I. D. Weeks
The June 6, 1966, 84th annual spring commencement, marked the last time that President I. D. Weeks presided over a university graduation ceremony. The importance of this ceremony is clear from its gold program cover and the dignitaries present asked to comment on President Weeks’ many accomplishments for the university, the state, and nation. As […]
Kyle Gruhn
Apr 30, 20241 min read
Happy National Poetry Month: The oldest book in the Archives and Special Collections is a poetry book in Latin.
Incipit laus Sancti Bernardi Abatis; Laus de Virgine Maria: Ave mater misericordie may be the oldest book in the Archives and Special Collections. I found this description of the book on a sheet of letterhead paper tucked into the book: “Manuscript on paper, written in a fine formal book hand. 28 lines. 12 leaves (the […]
Doris Peterson
Apr 19, 20241 min read
Open house for Archives & Special Collections, Digital Humanities, Digital Imaging Lab, and South Dakota Oral History Center
Thursday, April 18, 20244:00-6:00pm IDW 3rd Floor 321Join us for refreshments, guided tours, interactive stations and guest speakers.
Doris Peterson
Apr 8, 20241 min read
In the Mahoney Music Collection are two competing music histories.
Charles Burney’s and John Hawkins’s multi-volume histories were both published in London in the late 1700s (around 1776.) How are they different, and how are they similar? Why did the authors say negative comments about the other’s history?
Doris Peterson
Mar 18, 20241 min read
Louella Cable was an aquatic biologist, the first female scientist hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, a prolific researcher, a great scientific illustrator, and an USD Alumna.
Dr. Cable received B.A. (1926) and M.A. (1927) degrees from the University of South Dakota. She worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, later called the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, from 1927 to 1970.
Doris Peterson
Mar 1, 20241 min read
The University of South Dakota Rodeo Club
In 1964, the University of South Dakota (USD) student newspaper, the Volante and the Vermillion Plain Talk mentioned USD Rodeo Club activities several times. That March the club signed a contract for livestock for the upcoming fourth annual intercollegiate rodeo held in Vermillion on May 2nd and 3rd. Events those two days included a parade, […]
Kyle Gruhn
Feb 29, 20242 min read
The papers of Archie M. Gubbrud, governor of South Dakota 1961-1965, contain folders on Civil Rights.
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 […]
Kyle Gruhn
Feb 20, 20241 min read
Wouldn’t this make a great Charter Day cake?
I would eat a cake decorated to look like concrete letters surrounded by green bushes. How about you? Click here for the location and history of the University of South Dakota hillside letters, This year marks the 162nd anniversary of the establishment of the University by the first Dakota Territory Legislature in 1862, 141th anniversary […]
Doris Peterson
Feb 4, 20241 min read
Medieval graphic novel
La Chirurgie: Codex Sloane 1977 is a full color facsimile of a unique 13th century illuminated French medical atlas. At first glance, it looks like a medieval graphic novel. Many of its 28 pages contain a three panel by three panel grid of framed scenes with human figures on alternating blue and red background.. The […]
Doris Peterson
Jan 28, 20241 min read
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