Contact the Archives and Special Collections to read this entire poem about a hummingbird by Milford E. Shields in Lakota (translation by Wallace Little Finger), English, and an unidentified language. Poem is from the collection Milford E. Shields, “The Hummingbird”.

One of DP’s favorite items in the Archives and Special Collections is this oblique map of South Dakota. It is a favorite because geographical information expressed in this slanted or skewed method is less common than a vertical overhead view, especially before computer mapping software. The map title is Physical Features State of South Dakota. It is in the South Dakota State Geological Survey Bulletin no. 13, 1943. Call number CHILSON COLLECTION QE163 .A3 no.13.

This is a portion of the “New and Correct Map of the United States of North America” by Abel Buell, call number 3700 H3 N213 1987. In 2026, the United States of America will observe its 250th anniversary. We will be searching our Archives and Special Collections for material to highlight the creation of the USA. So far, we have found material related to the Bicentennial. Contact us if you have suggestions. Follow this link for more information about Buell’s map.

La Chirurgie: Codex Sloane 1977 is a full color facsimile of a unique 13th century illuminated French medical atlas. At first glance, it looks like a medieval graphic novel. Many of its 28 pages contain a three panel by three panel grid of framed scenes with human figures on alternating blue and red background. The top row on each of these pages are Christian scenes from “Annunciation to Christ’s Resurrection.” The next two rows on each of these pages are “scenes between surgeon and patient, which depict medical problems ranging from cranial fracture to wounds on other parts of the body, dislocated shoulders, and infections.” This codex (i.e. an ancient book made of stacked, hand-written pages, usually bound along one edge) is strikingly beautiful and full of potential research topics, such as medical attitudes, gender politics, and history of bookmaking. It can be viewed in the Archives and Special Collections. You will need the collection name and call number – Health Sciences Rare Books WO 5 B862 1977. Quotes from Whittington, Karl. “Picturing Christ as Surgeon and Patient in British Library MS Sloane 1977.” In Mediaevalia, Volume 35. 2014. Pages 83-115.

I would eat a cake decorated to look like concrete letters surrounded by green bushes. How about you? Click here for the location and history of the University of South Dakota hillside letters, This year marks the 162nd anniversary of the establishment of the University by the first Dakota Territory Legislature in 1862, 141st anniversary of the signing of the charter in 1883, and 102 years since the letters were presented to the University of South Dakota in 1922. Charter Day at the University is February 3rd. It commemorates the day that the governor signed “an act to provide for the organization and government of the University of the Territory of Dakota.” You can view pictures of Charter Day celebrations in early Coyote yearbooks (LD5078 .C6). These books are in the Archives and Special Collections and in the library’s main collection. You can read the text of the charter in Laws passed at the fifteenth session of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Dakota, 1883 (KFS3025 .A3). This book is in the Archives and Special Collections and in the library’s main collection.

Thursday, April 18, 2024, 4:00-6:00pm IDW 3rd Floor 321Join us for refreshments, guided tours, interactive stations and guest speakers.

We found a self-recorded 78 rpm phonograph dated 1949 in our USD Phonograph collection. It was in a Modern Electric Co.’s. bag. Did Modern Electric or the University of South Dakota have the equipment needed to record onto a blank phonograph?

First floor plan for proposed library expansion, 1992. Map from the Library Expansion collection. Information about this time capsule was discovered in the Volante (student newspaper). The April 27, 1994, issue has a photograph of two women standing before a wall under construction and holding a 3 feet x 1 foot plywood box. The picture caption tells us that the capsule was sponsored by the USD Student Association and is meant to represent life in 1994. The Archives and Special Collections has the Volantes in 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.

We couldn’t find a photograph from the first South Dakota Legislative Session, but the Archives and Special Collections does have a picture from the fifteenth (1917) Session with the legislators’ names written right on the photograph. This photograph is from the William Lyon collection. Can you find him in this mosaic?

These are some of the named automobile routes in South Dakota in 1920: Yellowstone Trail – Ortonville, MN to Hettinger, ND – marked on map with orange. Black and Yellow Trail – Tracy, MN to Sundance, WY – marked on map with yellow. Custer Battlefield Hiway – Sioux City, IA to Sundance, WY – marked on map with red. Black Hills Sioux Trail and Black Hills, Rosebud & Omaha Scenic Highway – Hot Springs, SD to Creighton and Valentine, NE – marked on the map with light blue. King of Trails – Sioux City, IA to Wahpeton, ND – marked on the map with green. Meridian Highway – Yankton, SD to Fargo, ND – marked on the map with blue. Sunshine Highway – Yankton, SD to Ellendale, ND – marked on the map with purple. The map without the color lines is from the Official Automobile Blue Book, 1920. Vol. 10, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, with Extension Routes into Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Utah, Idaho and Washington. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Co., 1920. This book is in the Archives and Special Collections in the Chilson Collection. The name of the roads are from the Clason’s So. Dakota Green Guide : Showing All the Best Roads : State and City Maps, Auto Road Logs, Railroads, Commercial Index of Towns Giving Hotels, Industries, Altitudes, Population, Etc. Clason Map Co., 1920. This book is in the Archives and Special Collections in the Chilson Collection. The Fawick Flyer was a car manufactured in Sioux Falls, SD.