Here are a few helpful tips for the lucky ones visiting an archive: Give yourself enough time. Looking through archival collections is time-consuming, and you will need more time than you expect. Believe me. Check with the archival staff beforehand and ask them a lot of questions. Will they be open the days you want to visit? Are there other collections you should look at? Read through the sources at the end of this blog for more questions. Learn as much as possible before you get to the archives about the collections you want to access. Are there finding aids and how do you can get copies of these finding aids? Are there restrictions on the collections you want to use for research? If you want to see a book in the archives, bring more with you than the call number. Often the person pulling the book from the closed stacks needs to know information from the entire catalog record, such as book size and number of pages, before they know where a book is stored. Keep track of what you have looked at and keep track of information that you will need for citations. Write it down. Bonus tip: If visiting us, ask to see our copy of Reading early American handwriting by Kip Sperry. It can help decipher handwritten documents. See also: Introduction to Archival Research, USD LibGuides (accessed August 24, 2016). Using Archives: a guide to effective research, Society of American Archivist (accessed August 19, 2016).

William H. Lyon I recently found the note below in a book called The People’s Problem and Its Solution by William H. Lyon and copyrighted in 1886. This book was published by the author and printed by Press Job Print, Sioux Falls, Dakota Territory. The note is: “Please accept this work with the complements of the author. It is believed to be the first book ever published in the territory of Dakota.” How can I verify this claim? Lyon’s book and picture can be found in the William H. Lyon Papers at the Archives and Special Collections.

Mahoney Music Collection has books and journals with beautiful illustrations and photographs of musical instruments. Buonanni, Filippo. Gabinetto armonico pieno d’instromenti ti sonori, indicati, spiegati, e di nuovo corretti ed accresciuti. Here are a few: Buonanni, Filippo. Gabinetto armonico pieno d’instromenti ti sonori, indicati, spiegati, e di nuovo corretti ed accresciuti. Roma: Nella stamperia di G. Placho, 1723. ML460 .B94 1723 Hipkins, Alfred J. Musical instruments, historic, rare and unique. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1888, ML460 .H66 1888. Lachmann, Erich. Erich Lachmann collection of historical stringed musical instruments. Los Angeles: Allan Hancock Foundation, University of Southern California, 1950, ML462.L8 L3. Thöne, Jost. Italian & French violin makers. Grottammare, Italy: Jost Thöne, 2003, ML800 .T56 2003. Yokoyama, Shinichi. The Classic bowed stringed instruments from the Smithsonian Institution. Tokyo: Gakken, c1986, ML462 W33 S64 1986. The Strad: A monthly journal for professionals and amateurs of all stringed instruments played with the bow, issues from 1929 through 2017. Happy anniversary Mahoney Music Collection. This collection was opened to researchers ten years ago this month.

“Books remain one of the strongest bulwarks we have against tyranny – but only as long as people are free to read all different kinds of books, and only as long as they actually do so.” Books for Living by Will Schwalbe, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017, p.257. National Library Week is April 9 – 15, 2017.

On April 26, 1963, The University of South Dakota became the official name of our university here in Vermillion. It was called the State University of South Dakota in some documents and the University of South Dakota in others. The State Board of Regents of Education designated the latter. USD logo, 1960s From “University of South Dakota Designated Official Name.” The University of South Dakota Bulletin. Series LXIII, Bulletin no. 11, Alumni No. 5, May 1, 1963. Alumni publications are one of my favorite sources of USD history. The title does change over time (Alumni Quarterly, South Dakota Alumnus, University of South Dakota Bulletin, Dakotan, and South Dakotan, for example), but they are kept in the archives as one collection.

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 minutes stop in 1981. Did the group disband around that time?

The John Day collection on Arthur Amiotte (MS 046) is now open to researchers. Most of this collection was gathered by John Day before, during, and after the retrospective on Arthur Amiotte’s art in 2001. Also included are VHS recordings featuring Amiotte. The 4.5 linear feet of material span the years 1962-2010, with the bulk of the material dated 1980-2003. Contact the Archives and Special Collections for a copy of the guide to the collection.

Archives and Special Collections recently received a 1925 report about the Standing Rock Reservation written by E.D. Mossman for a visiting congressional committee. Shown below is one of the pages from this report. [Update: Report to the members of the visiting Congressional Committee regarding the Standing Rock Indian Agency, Fort Yates, North Dakota has now been added to the Digital Library of South Dakota.]

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, but we seem to be missing the entire 1988-1989 school year. Please contact us if you have Volantes from that year that you would like to donate. The first fourteen years of the Volante can be seen online on the South Dakota Digital Library. The main collection of the library has most (if not all) of the Volantes on microfilm.

Three copper engravings from Description de l’Egypte were recently added to the Mahoney Music Collection. These plates are from Antiquities volumes 2 and 5 and show individuals playing harps. Each measure about 30” x 22”, with one in color and the others in grey tones. These images spark my curiosity. What did early Egyptian harp music sound like? Description de l’Egypte is a multivolume set containing information gathered during Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt in 1798. The first edition was published 1802 – 1824 and had four printings. These printings differ mainly in quality, i.e. in the types of paper used and how many of plates were in color. For more about the books and the plates, the expedition, the people involved, the engraving process, the Rosetta Stone, and the ancient Suez Canal, see Gillispie, and Dewachter. Source: Gillispie, C., & Dewachter, M. (1987). Monuments of Egypt: The Napoleonic edition: The complete archaeological plates from la Description de l’Egypte. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Architectural Press in association with the Architectural League of New York, the J. Paul Getty Trust, call number Main Collection DT60 .M59 1987.