All Posts

Although both the W. H. Over Museum and the National Music Museum (NMM) have distinctly different items they collect and the NMM is part of the University of South Dakota (USD), whereas the W. H. Over Museum resides on the USD campus, but is not part of USD, at one time both called the Carnegie […]

Do you see the park’s baseball field and the swimming pool on the postcard above? Vermillion is collecting stories about the park for the celebration. We will happily forward any stories you send to us to the committee collecting the stories. Help us assign a date to this postcard. We know it is after 1936 […]

This year, make a trip to Mitchell to see the Corn Palace and/or visit our Archives and Special Collections to read about the once common Corn Palaces: 1976. Schutt, Robert. The Corn Palace Story: with a Description of Early South Dakota and Mitchell, and a Map Indicating South Dakota Indian Reservations. Dakota News. CHILSON COLLECTION. F659.M5 […]

The Nancy Carlsen Research Papers show her passion for local history, maps, and the Missouri River. The collection is mostly about Clay County cemeteries and the Clay County sites on the National Register of Historic Places. It also includes material about Clay County Preservation Commission, Spirit Mound Trust, Spirit Mound Cemetery Restoration, and River Honoring. […]

Come visit us and check out the view from our new space in the library at the University of South Dakota.

The Archives and Special Collections received 31 boxes of rolled architectural drawings, floor plans, and blueprints of buildings in Vermillion SD and the University of South Dakota. We are in the process of flattening and inventorying this gift. Projects date from 1920s to 2000s. Some of the projects are the Clay County Courthouse, Vermillion public […]

On April 23, 1884, Arbor Day, students at the University [of South Dakota] planted a silver maple tree. One hundred years later on April 26, 1984, students and USD alumni celebrated the centennial birthday of South Dakota’s largest silver maple tree by planting 125 trees around campus. In an unfortunate storm on October 24, 1997, […]

Historian Everett Sterling wrote in Vermillion Story (1959) that there was “a 1910 map preserved in the City Building, on which every residence is shown and identified …” Does anyone know where the map is now? Sterling’s Vermillion Story is in the Chilson Collection. Other histories about Vermillion and Clay County SD are listed on […]

This recipe is from Good Things to Eat and How to Prepare Them. Buffalo NY: Larkin Co., 1906. This book is in the Chilson Collection in the Archives and Special Collections.

If ghost towns do not need to have standing structures, then Clay County has at least one – Lodi. Bloomingdale may turn out to be another one, but further research is needed to determine if Bloomingdale was a town. Both are now private land and used for farming. Peterson’s atlas can be viewed in the […]

Her photograph collection “chronicles life in Veblen, South Dakota and includes photographs taken by Vivian Steen as well as others. ” They date from circa 1900 to 1930s. The photographs range “from scenes of the downtown, scenes of store interiors, storekeepers, harvesters, ranch work, farm animals, road trips in both horse drawn vehicles and motor […]

April is National Poetry Month and March 21st is International Poetry Day. Browse the shelves in the library and have fun putting titles together to form a poem that pleases you.

She was active and influential in politics and public education in the early 20th century at the local (Vermillion SD) level and the state level. She also wrote for a local newspaper, the Vermillion Plain Talk, and taught school. 1866 – birth. Circa 1888 – graduation from USD and started teaching at Vermillion. 1901 – […]

Information from “U.S.D. Endowment Association.” The Alumni Quarterly 18 no. 1 (April 1922); 36-37. This publication can be found in the Archives and Special Collections.

“Since 1972, EROS has worked to map, monitor, and analyze land change across our nation and around the world” (EROS website). This USGS facility is located by Sioux Falls, SD, and is a treasure-trove of satellite images and aerial photographs.” Documents and photographs concerning the early history of EROS and ERTS (Earth Resources Technology Satellite) […]

We wish we had more. Please, please donate your USD student group’s publications to the archives. They will tell future researchers so much about USD. Below are listed the publications we currently have in the Archives and Special Collections. Student Publications: The Blast, magazine, 1954 to 1968 Blue Print, magazine, 1917 to 1927 The Coyote, […]

Even his wife Eleanor did not know what was in it. In her cookbook, she described the dressing as having a tangy flavor all its own. George McGovern was an US senator from South Dakota and the Democratic Party presidential nominee 50 years ago in the 1972 presidential election. This cookbook is in the Chilson […]

Darrow, A. N., et al. Map of the Missouri River : from Its Mouth to Three Forks, Montana. Missouri River Commission, 1892-1895. Archives and Special Collections doesn’t have all the maps in this set, but we do have the indexes and maps for South Dakota under call number 1472 M5 1895 U545. This map shows […]

This vintage photograph postcard is in the Works Progress Administration Records in the Archives and Special Collections. It was copyrighted in 1912 by L. E. Stair of Mitchell, SD. The WPA Records also contain a short story about this photograph as told by Mr. L. E. Stair.

The mound appears on this 1856 map as Little Spirits Hill. Spirit Mound was described by local Indigenous people to the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804. Twenty years ago in 2001, it was replanted with native grasses and joined the South Dakota state park system as Spirit Mound Historic Prairie. In 2010, a geologic […]