to USD’s COVID-19 Experiences Project? Don’t be shy. I will let you read my less-than-great haiku. Ha, TP hoarding Funny until you run out Shelves are still empty Please don’t come near me Your breath and touch dangerous I so want to live

Archives and Special Collections recently received: The water cure: archaeological investigations at the sanitarium and bath house, Cascade Springs, South Dakota. Abstract: “The Water Cure is an overview of the growth of health tourism in the southern Black Hill of South Dakota during the 1890s. During this era, medical doctors believed in the curative powers of drinking and bathing in mineral waters. They encouraged people to restore their health in therapeutic settings around natural warm springs. Bath houses, founded on the age-old Turkish bath experience, offered dry, steam and shower rooms as well as individual or group plunge baths to cure maladies such as hemorrhoids or rheumatism.” I love archaeological reports, particularly those written for the public. In addition to a meticulous description of the archaeological project, the methodology, and the results, they include all this marvelous background history, architectural description, and material culture images. This report contains everything needed to set the context for the sanitorium and bath house. The wide range of topics covered is best illustrated by its table of context: Part One: Settling the Southern Black Hills Chapter 1. Homesteaders: Alabough Canyon Chapter 2. Early Transportation: Railroads, Stagecoaches, and Electric Motor Lines Chapter 3. Hot Springs Town-Site Company: Friendly Competition Part Two: Carlsbad Spring Company Chapter 4. The Water Cure: Health Tourism Chapter 5. The Sales Pitch: Gather Your Loose Change! Chapter 6. Feverish Growth, Blocks, Lots, Streets, and Alleys Chapter 7. Surrendering Possession: The Panic of 1893 Chapter 8. Final Disposition: 1894-1908 Part Three: Archaeological Excavations Chapter 9. Exposing the Ruins: Survey and Testing Chapter 10. Sanitarium and Bath House Footprint: The Crown Jewel Chapter 11. Internal Plumbing: Steam Boilers and Pipes Chapter 12. Day to Day Life: Domestic Artifacts Chapter 13. The Turkish Bath Experience: A Day at the Spa Chapter 14. Four Objectives: Assessing the Results – Here are more images from the book: Boen, Byrne, Mayer, Shierts, Vogt, and Williams. The water cure: archaeological investigations at the sanitarium and bath house, Cascade Springs, South Dakota. Rapid City and Pierre, SD: Archaeological Research Center and South Dakota State Historical Society, 2020.

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

– 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. ed. Philadelphia: Printed by the Author, 1793. Call number WC 530 C275 1793. Synopsis of the book above: Philadelphia’s yellow fever epidemic of 1793 claimed the lives of nearly 4000 people. Carrey’s book and other related histories reveal a little-known episode in Black history. Due to a mistaken belief that African Americans could not get yellow fever, many Blacks volunteered or were volunteered to care for the sick and dying. They served in all capacities, including as nurses, cart drivers, and grave diggers. At the time, Philadelphia was the temporary capital of the United States and one of the largest U.S. cities. Other books in the Health Sciences Rare Books Collection are: United States. Public Health Service. Preliminary Report on the Yellow-fever Epidemic of 1882, in the State of Texas. Washington, D.C., 1882. WCK U58p 1882 Fenner, Erasmus Darwin. History of the Epidemic Yellow Fever, at New Orleans, La., in 1853. New York: Hall, Clayton, 1854. WCK F336h 1854 Miner, Thomas, and William Tully. Essays on Fevers, and Other Medical Subjects. Middletown, Conn.: E. & H. Clark, 1823. WC M664e 1823 Herman P. Chilson books, Hot Off the Press books, youth books, DVDs, videos, government documents, and oral history collections in the Archives and Special Collections and in the I.D. Weeks Library also have items on pandemics and epidemics.

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, and General Land Office. Here is a sample list of local cadastral atlases in the Archives and Special Collections: Clay County Atlas, 1901 Standard Atlas of Clay County, 1912 Atlas of Clay and Union Counties, 1924 Atlas of Clay and Union Counties, 1960 Atlas of Clay and Union Counties, 1980 Atlas of Clay County, 1990, Centennial Series Farm and Home Directories: Clay, Lincoln, Turner, Union, and Yankton Counties, 1984-present. Cadastral maps are helpful to historians, genealogists, archaeologists, and those tracing landowners for legal reasons. Though cadastral maps are often reliable, the ultimate source of past and present ownership information is still the county courthouse. Keep in mind, ownership is only one type of land / human relationship. The others are harder to map.

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.

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 once a month, and March’s topic is #ArchivesYouAreHere. LOC invites groups to share their maps, astrolabes, star charts, tidal maps, compasses, globes, visitor guides, treasure maps, city plans, or even architectural drawings.

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 sponsors #ArchivesHashtagParty once a month, and March’s topic is #ArchivesYouAreHere. LOC invited groups to share their maps, astrolabes, star charts, tidal maps, compasses, globes, visitor guides, treasure maps, city plans, or even architectural drawings.

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.

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 in the Archives and Special Collections. Happy Labor Day.