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Finding aids finished during 2025: Shane Balkowitsch Ambrotypes Robert Blachnik photographs Rex Butler Collection of Henry and Frank H. Butler photographs Lea Rosson DeLong papers on Wilber M. Stilwell Dephane Hammond papers Nikki Heidepriem collection on Edith and Margaret Reeves Gilbert Monell Hitchcock papers Richard Holm notebook Arthur Leslie Keith papers Henry Langford Loucks papers Albert J. Maag papers Department of Psychology Richardson Phonograph collection Gretchen

The drawings show Old Main, East Hall, Law Building (currently the Arts & Sciences Building), Library (currently the National Music Museum), New Armory (currently the Al Neuharth Media Center), Old Armory (currently the Belbas Center), and Slagel Auditorium (currently the Aalfs Auditorium). Included in this post is a drawing of the Old Armory. Call number […]

In the 2000s, the USD Alumni Association offered Christmas ornaments based on University of South Dakota buildings. I found ornaments for Old Main, Belbas Center, Neuharth Center, East Hall, Inman House, and the Old Law School. Do you know of others? The Archives and Special Collections will be closed on December 24, 25, and 26.

To honor Indigenous traditions, languages and stories during Native American Heritage Month, we are highlighting Dakota and Lakota language classes at the University of South Dakota. The newsletter of the Institute of Indian Studies recounts, “There is an interesting story behind the development of the course. It started as a topic introduced from the floor […]

The Archives and Special Collections recently wrote finding aids for our two sets of phonograph albums, the Richardson Phonograph Collection and the USD Phonograph Collection. Most of these are 12-inch, 33 1/3 rpm vinyl disks, though a few other sizes, rpms, or materials are present. The Richardson Phonograph Collection consists of albums by South Dakota Musicians. […]

While researching another topic, I recently found in a 1975 Volante student newspaper that the League of Women Voters established an all-volunteer recycling center in Vermillion SD, and it was in a restructured building below the bluff. The article does not mention when. If you know when this recycling center started and stopped, please let […]

On November 7, 1922, South Dakotans were asked to vote whether to move the University from Vermillion to Sioux Falls. This initiated law lost, and it had the lowest yes vote of any initiated law in the years analyzed by Alan Clem, i.e., 1889-1960 (page 35). Shown in the image are the constitutional amendments (CA) […]

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, […]

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.

When did the USD football team play Notre Dame? 1913-1917 Information from The history of intercollegiate football, basketball, track, and baseball at the State University of South Dakota, Richard T. Haase, USD M.A. thesis. Consult Haase’s thesis to find out if USD beat Norte Dame and when. Image of USD football team from Digital Library […]

Autobiographies by Lewis Akeley and Edward Churchill have vivid descriptions and fun stories centered around their teaching experiences at the University of South Dakota. Akeley’s book covers approximately 1887 to 1933. Churchill’s book covers approximately 1920 to 1961. My favorite stories are Churchill’s description of the campus in 1920 and how it felt to teach […]

I need to find a bowler hat and a dark suit. Should I dress up and sit outside of Old Main now while there are not many people on campus, or wait until fall when the leaves are off the trees, allowing us to photograph a clearer view of Old Main and East Hall? Image […]

What is more embarrassing than a Belch in the library? In the library a Belch rumbles through the corridors. It booms in the shocked silence. It echoes extra loudly. It startles the people and everybody looks at you, some disapproving, over the tops of their glasses and some laughing, behind their books, at […]

Mrs. M. Reed, M. D. Physician and Surgeon Salmer Block Vermillion, S. D. The Volante. Volume XV, Number 1. October 2, 1901. https://explore.digitalsd.org/digital/collection/volante/id/3048/rec/1 One little ad in the Volante sparks so many questions. A woman doctor in Vermillion in 1901? Who was she and where did she come from? Where did she go to medical school? What […]

In January 1920, the University of South Dakota’s winter term began one week later than scheduled because of a coal shortage and the uncertainty of future coal supply. The shortage and uncertainty were due to a coal miners’ strike. Sources: Information from The Alumni Quarterly, January 1920, page 134. Image from the leather cover […]

Did you feel like a penguin this last week? Penguins are in my favorite research project logo. USD zoology professor Raymond Dillon and two grad students participated in an United States Antarctica research program for 10 weeks in 1969, collecting fresh water and soil protozoa samples. For more information on the research project, please see […]

The Volante, the student newspaper at the University of South Dakota, was started in November of 1887 and continues to this day. USD historian Cedric Cummins wrote that “The strange title had been derived from a French word signifying ‘flying’. ” (The University of South Dakota, 1862-1966, p.36) The Archives and Special Collections has the Volantes on paper, […]

East Hall was built 130 years ago in 1877. It was the third building constructed on our campus. This image and description of the East Hall appeared on the cover of the 1981 commencement program. During the 1980s and 1990s, USD commencement programs often highlighted USD buildings. The Archives and Specials has an […]

The USD alumni newsletters are fast becoming my favorite source for USD history. To be useful, these newsletters need an index or to be in a searchable format unless, like me, you are looking for random and interesting tidbits about USD. An example of a random and interesting article is “U.S. Naval Weapons Lab likes girls from South Dakota” in […]

I have been waiting. Image from Catalogue of the University of South Dakota for the year 1892-3.