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The WPA papers at the University of South Dakota Archives and Special Collections have recipe cards for 50 different ways you can prepare a pheasant. The South Dakota WPA Writers Project selected 12 of the 50 for their booklet “Fifty Million Pheasants.” Below is not one of the twelve, but it sounds tasty. To see […]

Eastern part of SD was in Iowa Territory 1838–1846. Eastern part of SD was in Minnesota Territory 1849–1858. Western part of SD was in Nebraska Territory 1854–1861. SD was entirely in Dakota Territory 1861-1889. The original boundaries of Dakota Territory are shown on the first map below. The final boundaries are shown in the second […]

This comprehensive music-related collection is mainly books, largely centered around stringed instruments, was created by John Mahoney, and is housed in the Archives and Special Collection at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, SD. Library of Congress sponsors #ArchivesHashtagParty once a month. November’s topic is #ArchivesBookLove.

The following summary is from the guide to his papers at the Archives and Special Collections: Frank L. Farrar was born April 2, 1929, in Britton, South Dakota. Farrar was the only Governor of South Dakota who was also elected governor at South Dakota Boys State. He attended and graduated from the University of South […]

While doing research in an archival collection, have you ever come across intriguing, but completely off-topic items that have nothing to do with your research? Working with the George Prescott Scott papers in the Archives and Special Collections, I found a presentation he gave in 1982 on “Split Brains and Spooky Vibes.” Title aside, the […]

While doing research in an archival collection, have you ever come across intriguing, but completely off-topic items that have nothing to do with your research? For example, while working with the Edward Perry Churchill collection I found a research paper he wrote in 1916 on “The Learning of a Maze by Goldfish.” What do you […]

It was south and west of Yankton, Dakota Territory. This 1872 map can be viewed in the Archives and Special Collections. Map of Military Department of the Platte, Nebraska. Washington, D.C.: Engineer Dept., U.S. Army (Washington D.C. : N. Peters, Photo-lithographer), 1872. CHILSON COLLECTION MAP 4190 W728 1872

What do you think of this great graphic expression of the University of South Dakota’s academic programs in 1982? The poster also lists the year each program starts. It was created by Wayne Knutson and is in the College of Arts and Sciences collection.

Peter Norbeck’s papers (SD governor 1917-1921 and US senator 1921-1936) has a folder titled Thirty Hour Week. Archie Gubbrud’s papers (SD governor 1960-1964) has a folder titled Forty Hour Week. Was there a discussion about working thirty hours per week before there was a discussion about the forty-hour work week? Both sets of papers are […]

The image is from the Digital Library of South Dakota. Library of Congress sponsors #ArchivesHashtagParty once a month, and August’s topic is #ArchivesAthletes. LOC invites archives to submit tweets about athletes who broke records and barriers, famous sites for training and competition, patents for sport equipment, or historic moments that still give you goosebumps.

Map of the Ceded Part of Dakota Territory: Showing Also Portions of Minnesota, Iowa & Nebraska, Smith, B. M., et al, 1861. Archives and Special Collection has this map in the Chilson Collection with the call number 4130 S64 1861. The inset map in the upper left corner shows the entire Dakota Territory and its boundaries.

At 33 inches by 25 inches and weighing more than 50 pounds, this lunar atlas is the largest book in the Archives and Special Collection at USD. The moon was photographed through the Observatory of Paris’ telescope in the late 1890s, and the photographs used to produce photogravure plates for the atlas. Library of Congress […]

The atlases contained information on routes, hotels, gas stations, car repair shops, road conditions (including which roads to avoid when it is muddy and which roads had sharp turns). The ads in the book are beautiful and informative about car culture. Volume Ten is in the Archives and Special Collections. Library of Congress sponsors #ArchivesHashtagParty […]

Though the name never appeared on a map, the bend of the Missouri River south of Burbank, SD was called Negro Bend. The French named it after a local settlement of Black woodcutters who sold fuel wood to steamboats. On many maps, the region is called Kate Sweeney Bend, after a steamboat that sunk in […]

Check out the food enjoyed by Ruth Egge and her family while on a cruise ship in 1910. From the Ruth March Egge Papers. Richardson Collections. Archives and Special Collections. University of South Dakota.

Recently added to the Archives and Special Collections website are instructions for navigating and searching through finding aids on ArchivesSpace: The Archives and Special Collections department is moving our Richardson Collection finding aids to ArchivesSpace. Though the physical location and the format of the finding aids are changing, you can continue to access the finding […]

They are land ownership maps. The Archives and Special Collections has many cadastral maps, both as sheet maps and in atlases. Library records for most of these maps and atlases are in the library catalog and can be found using subject terms and key words such as cadastral, real property maps, landowner maps, land use, […]

– about past United States epidemics are in the Archives and Special Collections in the Health Sciences Rare Books Collection: Carey, Mathew. A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia: With a Statement of the Proceedings That Took Place on the Subject in Different Parts of the United States. 3d Ed., Improved. […]

The Alan H. Schell Collection of Campaign Buttons, Pins, and Political Ephemera contains 2 watches in addition to nearly one thousand pins, buttons, and ribbons that date from 1884 to 2008. Can you tell which watch was meant to support a candidate and which one was meant to lampoon a candidate?

and that the Archives and Special Collections is not a scary place.