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I am hunting for a book titled In The World War 1917 1918 1919, Clay County, South Dakota or An Honor Roll Containing a Pictorial Record of the gallant and courageous men from Clay County South Dakota, U.S.A. who served in the Great War 1917-1918-1919. I have seen similar books for a number of other […]

The Archives and Special Collections has recently received a book about residents of our county who did not return from war. It contains 10 biographies written by USD students and their professor concerning military service personnel from Clay County, South Dakota, who were killed in action. The biographies are based on information gathered from local […]

American mathematician Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler is best known for leading a successful career in mathematics in the early twentieth century, a time when few women worked in the field. She was the first woman to lecture before the American Mathematical Society, and she was influential in shaping the mathematics department at Bryn Mawr College. […]

One hundred years ago last month, the Association of Collegiate Alumnae at the University of South Dakota at Vermillion was founded. The club reorganized into the Vermillion Branch of the American Association of University Women on October 23, 1924. The papers for this group can be viewed at the Archives and Special Collections. The meeting […]

Was a professor from the University of South Dakota, Dr. Marjorie Eastwood Dudley (1891-1961), the first woman in America to write a symphony for a major orchestra? (The South Dakotan, November 1977, p. 3) It would be fun to find what symphony she wrote and for which orchestra. Maybe the answer is in her papers, which were […]

Archives and Special Collections recently received a scrapbook created by A. L. Wilson. This scrapbook contains approximately 80 programs for voice student recitals, university choir, and other music groups from 1916 to 1965, plus a few news clippings. It complements another collection we have of music programs. Alvin Leroy (A. L.) Wilson taught […]

Charles Trimble was born in Wanblee SD in 1935. He received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from USD in 2008 for his distinguished record of public service and was inducted in the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2013. Below are listed some of the organizations Mr. Trimble has served: American Indian Press […]

Freshmen Initiation Friday, September 19, 1913, otherwise known as Black Friday, the newly acquired graduating class of 1917, gathered outside of Main Hall (today one could assume they meant Old Main) promptly at 7:30 pm to begin their journey through the time honored tradition of hazing the incoming freshmen. Though this practice has gone by the […]

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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 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 […]

The Herman P. Chilson Collection of Western Americana, located in the Archives and Special Collections, includes books, journals, maps, pamphlets, and other print materials relating to local histories, South Dakota history, Native American cultures, and United States western expansion. The Chilson Collection is cataloged and information about items in the collection can be found using […]

During the 1940s to the 1960s, Vermillion hosted a vibrant set of concerts sponsored by the Vermillion Community Artists’ Series. The following description is from one of its programs: “The annual concert program was inaugurated in 1947 when Arthur H. Whittemore and Jack Lowe, duo-pianists, presented a concert to establish the A. H. Whittemore Memorial […]

John Phillip Sousa is widely known in the world of music as the “March King.” Yet, his prolific compositional career included operettas, songs, and suites in addition to the more famous 135 individual marches: Stars and Stripes Forever, The Washington Post, Semper Fidelis, The Liberty Bell, Minnesota March, et al. Sousa was more than an […]

A Postcard Collection from the University of South Dakota’s Archives The USD Archives and Special Collections is home to many unique holdings from South Dakota’s past. This on-line exhibit, Greetings from South Dakota, is a compilation of 27 postcards rendering images from throughout the state. As a part of our Chilson Collection, this group of […]

Introduction: Emmy-nominated screenwriter Dorothy Cooper Foote was born in Vermillion, SD in 1911. She was also a USD alum who graduated in 1933 with a degree in journalism. After moving to California, she soon began to work her way up the ranks at Universal Studios. Under the name Dorothy Cooper, she wrote such films as […]

Although Edith Wharton may be best known for her novels analyzing New York’s upper crust, the author lived in France from 1907 until her death in 1937. There, she witnessed the ravages of World War I, especially the hardships endured by refugees. She helped by establishing The Children of Flanders Relief Committee and The American […]

While wandering through the labyrinth of books in the Archives and Special Collections, I came across a title that caught my eye. Taking it off the shelf, the tale of Ellen McGowan Biddle was unveiled in her memoir Reminiscences of a Soldier’s Wife. The story mainly focuses on experiences that occurred after the Civil War […]