"Archiving is not about history looking backward, but about storing and securing for the future. Archiving – all the activities from creation and management to the use of records and archives – has always been directed towards transmitting human activity and experience through time and, secondly, through space. It has the quality of the archive as a time machine." Eric Ketelaar, “Archival Temples, Archival Prisons” Quoted in Kristen Weld, Paper cadavers: the dictatorship in Guatemala. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2014, p.236.

"To me every trip to a library or archive is like a small detective story. There are always little moments on such trips when the past flares to life, like a match in the darkness". Larson, Erik. The devil in the white city: murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America. New York: Crown Publishers, 2003, 395-396.

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.

For the 250th birthday celebration of the United States of America, we are resharing this wonderful 2014 blog post by Archives and Special Collections' employee Abigail Proehl about our music book collection: American History in the Mahoney Music Collection This week we celebrate the birth of our nation, with this Friday marking the 238th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Throughout those two centuries, music has played a key role in shaping our American culture, and the Mahoney Music Collection is lucky to hold some of the best of our American music history. I poured through records, combed the stacks - and even got caught in the back room during a power outage! – to compile this feature on American music from the Mahoney Music Collection. The American Violinist, J. F. Hanks (mid-1800s) This is a beginners’ method book containing small exercises, music theory basics, and simple, two-part tunes. It gives information about the instrument’s construction, great violinists, playing in groups, and using the violin for teaching vocal music. Also has a supplement of Jacob Augustus Otto’s treatise. Fisher, William Arms. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States : An Historical Sketch with Special Reference to the Pioneer Publisher, Oliver Ditson Company, Inc., 1783-1933. Oliver Ditson Co., 1933. Fisher traces music printing in the U.S. from through the centuries. The very first book of music, though "crudely-printed", was 9th edition of The Bay Psalm Book in 1698 Massachusetts (previous versions only contained text). Included are stories of prominent publishers such as Schirmer, Lyon & Healy, and Witmark, plus numerous maps, portraits, and other illustrations. Post, Charles Clement. Ten Years a Cowboy. Rhodes & McClure publishing company, 1908. With a forward by Carl Sandburg and almost a thousand pages of tales, this book is really a gem of Americana. It covers everything from Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan to nursery tales and ghost stories. The reason it is part of the Mahoney collection is the large section of ballads and songs, arranged into chapters with titles like "Songs of Sailormen and Rivermen", "Cowboy Songs", and "Hobo and Jailhouse Songs". Each individual song has a verse and chorus written out on the staff, then printed lyrics for the (abundant) remaining verses. Some even have a brief history of the tune. I didn't recognize many of the titles, but just sight-reading some them was fun. McWhorter, Frankie, and John R. Erickson. Cowboy Fiddler. Texas Tech University Press, 1992. These two volumes are amazingly not about the same person. I was stunned to find Ten Years a Cowboy and learn about the legendary Tex Bender, and was even more excited to come across Cowboy Fiddler. Actually, there are four books in the collection about fiddling cowboys! Apparently there is an American tradition of cowboys playing the violin. Harmonica? - sure, they're rather portable. But violin...? Cowboy Fiddler is the memoir of Frankie McWhorter, a cowboy who played in Bob Wills's band. The other, Ten Years a Cowboy, is more mysterious. I couldn't track down who this legendary fiddler was, or how he got his nickname, but this is another beautiful example of Americana. Fantastic illustrations accompany "the story, romance and adventures of a life on the plains with the varied experiences as cow-boy, stock-owner, rancher". Shaffer, Karen A., and Neva Garner Greenwood. Maud Powell, Pioneer American Violinist. Maud Powell Foundation, 1988. Among all our musician biographies, I felt I had to include Maud Powell in this salute-to-America post. For, not only was she "America's first great master of the violin" when much of classical music was imported from Europe, but she was also a woman. Even today, there is a huge gender disparity in professional orchestras. At the turn of the 20th century, there was an even larger bias toward women performers. Maud Powell is a chapter in American history not only about music but also about feminism. She broke barriers to bring American musicians on par with European, and to bring female musicians on par with the men. One of my heroes. . . . . and FYI, the United States shares its birthday with Charles Burney's first history of music, A General History Of Music From The Earliest Ages To The Present Period. ACS

The South Dakota Oral History Center (SDOHC) contains thousands of recordings and transcripts of individuals who settled in South Dakota in the late part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century. This blog concerns a transcript of an interview with Mrs. Raymond Patterson (Dema Rose Patterson) by Ralph Searles, Dan Bassill, and Tom Dunnavin in Gregory, South Dakota on January 10, 1968. As part of my work for the SDOHC, I am re-formatting text after converting a PDF scan of the original transcript in a word document, tasked with staying as true as possible to the original transcript. Selected excerpts of Ms. Patterson’s words from the twenty-two-page transcribed interview are presented in quotations. As a convention in transcripts of oral history interviews, I made no grammatical or spelling corrections. A space designated by a line (_____) indicates that the transcriber was unsure of what was said. Ralph Searles, an interviewer, first read a narrative that Ms. Patterson and her sister Lois Zimmer wrote about their mother, Dema M. Rose, and father, Charles M. Rose, both early pioneers in Dallas, South Dakota. The Roses moved from Eskridge, Kansas to Gregory County in 1904. They homesteaded near Herrick. Both were teachers. According to the narrative and his obituary, Charles Rose was also mayor of Dallas, a newspaper man, rancher, real estate dealer, and writer (Winner Advocate, Winner, South Dakota, March 27, 1952). He called himself the “Rose of Rosebud”. During the interview, Ms. Patterson mentioned that in 1908, when she was four years old, she and another child were chosen to draw numbers for the Rosebud Indian Land Lottery for claims in newly formed Tripp County. Aside from Dallas, other cities, including Gregory and Chamberlain, participated in the lottery. Ms. Patterson recalled, “There were 17 barrels and each of them held over a thousand letters.” She continues, “we had picked up to 500 numbers, and somebody decided we were getting kind of tired.” Subsequently, some boys continued drawing numbers. A picture of the two girls, Dema Rose, the mayor’s daughter, and Virginia Wagner, niece of a town founder, is shown below. (From: Dallas, South Dakota: The End of the Line. Dallas Historical Society, 1977, page 144.) Dema Rose and Virginia Wagner ready to pick land lottery numbers. Growing up on the ranch, Ms. Patterson mentioned that her duties included milking cows and herding cattle. She started doing these chores at 12 years of age. Ms. Patterson recalled, “Oh yes, I milked a slew of cows every morning and night and would herd cattle all day long.” While herding cattle, she would encounter prairie chickens. As she recalls, “And I made friends with prairie chickens when I herded cattle. I used to share my lunch with them. And I would take out cans of water out of my supplies. So, then they didn't have to travel so far to get water for their broods.” Dema Rose Patterson remarked that she also broke many horses to ride as part of her ranching tasks. She explained, “Well, I always did what I called the humane way. I would teach them to get used to a saddle and bridle by wearing them in the corral and I'd tie things on their saddle to flip flop and they'd get used to this. Before I ever got on them.” The only problem that she described as a result of this process was, “I didn't weigh a hundred pounds in those days, and I had several horses that I broke quite successfully for me and yet when they got out and they 'got a man to ride them, why they were wild because they couldn't take that added weight.” A large part of the second part of the interview deals with Ms. Patterson’s career as a teacher in the 1920s. Her first teaching job was in a probation school in Mission, South Dakota. She described experiences with two students. One student had difficulties with mathematics and later brought a loaded pistol to school. To deal with the first situation Ms. Patterson stated, “He hadn't gotten arithmetic and he wasn't going to get it.” Later the conversation continued, “He wanted to have a new pair or chaps made and he'd furnish the sheep skin, how much it would cost him for sheepskin chaps. Well, then I figured out the percentages for him and then about the second time with a proposition and I said, "You know, if you'd look on page so and so in your arithmetic book, it shows you Just how to work that problem and you could figure it out for yourself.” And I said, “I suggest you get the book and you can check it out for an hour. You can figure it out for yourself." Although the lad learned arithmetic from several practical examples, one day he brought a loaded pistol to school. Ms. Patterson recalled, “on a very hot Saturday morning and he had a gun belt and a .38 gun in this gun belt and I told him, ’Now, listen Adolph, we can’t have any guns in school.” And I said, "You put the gun up on my desk’ and I says ‘at recess time we'll go out and shoot out what bullets you have to see who’s the best shot, you or I. ’ Ms. Patterson continued, “I says, ‘We'll see who can shoot those cans off the post out there.’ “Well okay”, he says, “If you think you can outshoot me, well try it.” I says, “Well if the Lord is with me, I think I can outshoot you maybe.” And I says, “We can try, try at least.” We did and luckily, I made a pretty fair show and got more cans off the posts than he did and so he went home with an empty gun anyway.” After this interaction, Ms. Patterson stated that Adolph never brought a gun to school again. A final story concerned a white seven-year-old student, George, who never had had a bath and was barefoot. Ms. Patterson, with the help of townspeople, was able to bathe the boy, cut his hair, take lice out of his hair, and get him new clothing. Subsequently, she stated, “ Every week he got a Saturday night bath and a change of clothes.” However, the boy’s father was furious about what was done to his son. Ms. Patterson mentioned regarding the father, “He come to town to kill me. And them men had suggested to me that I stay scarce. Because if he takes a shot at you first_______he'll probably take a shot at you and you won't have a chance. They said you pay no attention to him and we'll watch for them and we'll try not to let him near the school or any place where you’re going.” Luckily the two never met. This interview presents first-hand accounts of a young woman growing up during a time of changing relationships between settlers and Indians in Rosebud County, populating and developing land in newly formed Tripp and Gregory counties, working on a ranch, being influenced by remarkable parents, and teaching in rural schools. It adds to the rich history of life in South Dakota during the first quarter of the twentieth century.

American History in the Mahoney Music CollectionMahoney Music Collection This week we celebrate the birth of our nation, with this Friday marking the 238th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Throughout those two centuries, music has played a key role in shaping our American culture, and the Mahoney Music Collection is lucky to hold some of the best of our American music history. I poured through records, combed the stacks – and even got caught in the back room during a power outage! – to compile this feature on American music from the Mahoney Music Collection. The American Violinist, J. F. Hanks (mid 1800s) Beginners’ method book containing small exercises, music theory basics, and simple, two-part tunes. It gives information about the instrument’s construction, great violinists, playing in groups, and using the violin for teaching vocal music. Also has a supplement of Jacob Augustus Otto’s treatise. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States, William Arms Fisher (1933) Fisher traces music printing in the U.S. from through the centuries. The very first book of music, though “crudely-printed”, was 9th edition of The Bay Psalm Book in 1698 Massachusetts (previous versions only contained text). Included are stories of prominent publishers such as Schirmer, Lyon & Healy, and Witmark, plus numerous maps, portraits, and other illustrations. A Treasury of American Folklore, B. A. Botkin (1944) With a forward by Carl Sandburg and almost a thousand pages of tales, this book is really a gem of Americana. It covers everything from Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan to nursery tales and ghost stories. The reason it is part of the Mahoney collection is the large section of ballads and songs, arranged into chapters with titles like “Songs of Sailormen and Rivermen”, “Cowboy Songs”, and “Hobo and Jailhouse Songs”. Each individual song has a verse and chorus written out on the staff, then printed lyrics for the (abundant) remaining verses. Some even have a brief history of the tune. I didn’t recognize many of the titles, but just sight-reading some them was fun. Ten Years a Cowboy, Tex Bender, the Cowboy Fiddler (1886) Cowboy Fiddler, Frankie McWhorter & John R. Erickson (1992) These two volumes are amazingly not about the same person. I was stunned to find Ten Years a Cowboy and learn about the legendary Tex Bender, and was even more excited to come across Cowboy Fiddler. Actually, there are four books in the collection about fiddling cowboys! Apparently there is an American tradition of cowboys playing the violin. Harmonica? – sure, they’re rather portable. But violin…? Cowboy Fiddler is the memoir of Frankie McWhorter, a cowboy who played in Bob Wills’s band. The other, Ten Years a Cowboy, is more mysterious. I couldn’t track down who this legendary fiddler was, or how he got his nickname, but this is another beautiful example of Americana. Fantastic illustrations accompany “the story, romance and adventures of a life on the plains with the varied experiences as cow-boy, stock-owner, rancher”. Maud Powell, Pioneer American Violinist; Karen A. Schaffer and Neva Garner Greenwood (1988) Among all our musician biographies, I felt I had to include Maud Powell in this salute-to-America post. For, not only was she “America’s first great master of the violin” when much of classical music was imported from Europe, but she was also a woman. Even today, there is a huge gender disparity in professional orchestras. At the turn of the 20th century, there was an even larger bias toward women performers. Maud Powell is a chapter in American history not only about music but also about feminism. She broke barriers to bring American musicians on par with European, and to bring female musicians on par with the men. One of my heroes. . . . . and FYI, the United States shares its birthday with Charles Burney’s first history of music, A General History Of Music From The Earliest Ages To The Present Period. ACS

Gilbert C. Fite, Ph.D., a noted historian and USD alumnus, passed away on July 13, 2010. Dr. Fite, in 2002, arranged for the donation of his professional papers to the Archives and Special Collections. His son, James Fite, completed the donation in early 2011. The papers of Dr. Fite are a trove of correspondence, research files, and writings from his distinguished career as a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Georgia. The collection also reflects his service to the profession of history as president of the Western Historical Association, the Agricultural Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. The Farmers’ Frontier, 1865-1900 and Peter Norbeck, Prairie Statesman stand among his scholarly works that earned him high regard in the field of history. The Archives and Special Collections is honored to serve as the home for his papers. In 1975, USD conferred an Honorary Doctor of Literature upon Fite. .

Help us transcribe our collections! https://fromthepage.com/usdarchives FromThePage is a software designed for transcribing documents. The platform enables users to view an image of a page and transcribe the corresponding text. More information https://libguides.usd.edu/fromthepage Questions? Email us at library@usd.edu Recently our work in FromThePage was featured on KTIV news. https://www.ktiv.com/2026/01/13/becoming-digital-archivist-vermillion-libraries-seek-volunteers-help-with-historical-documents/ The Cuthbert DuCharme’s Trading Post Ledger: 1869-1872 is one of the many collections we have available in FromThePage https://fromthepage.com/usdarchives/chilson-collection/ledger-dakota-territory-1869-1872

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 happened to her after she left Vermillion? The ads for Dr. Reed ran in the Volante from October 1901 to June 1902. In the 1900 United States Federal Census, there is a Nannie B. Reed whose profession is listed as Physician living in Vermillion. This has to be the same woman. But why is her name listed as Nannie when in the ad she is Mrs. M. Reed? The census states she is married but no additional household members. More questions! The census also tells us she was born in Iowa in February 1871, lived in Vermillion ward 2 and was 29. Further research found that Nannie Reed died at the age of 33 on January 8, 1905 at her parents’ home. She is buried in Montgomery County, Iowa. That is all I could find about Dr. Reed. Another question that came about when researching these questions, is where is the Salmer Block in Vermillion? That question was a little easier to answer thanks to the Clay County Historical Society. I also found the Salmer Block is now known as 2 East Main Street and McVicker Plaza. Many doctors had their offices on the second floor. More about the history of the building can be found at http://www.cchssd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Spring-2019.pdf Click to access 2EMain_History_FINALc.pdf Newspaper are a great resource for historical research. In an effort to help researchers, the University Libraries is resuming digital cataloging of the Volante. Volumes 1, 1887 through volume 19, 1906 are now available on the Digital Library of South Dakota. https://explore.digitalsd.org/digital/collection/volante/search/searchterm/Volante/field/all/mode/exact/conn/and/order/date/page/1

Our first issue of FromthePage Newsletter is now available. See what we are doing with transcription projects. https://libguides.usd.edu/fromthepage/newsletter