From Cleata B. Thorpe’s Education in South Dakota 1861-1961: Teachers will fill lamps, clean chimneys and trim wicks each day. Each teacher will bring a scuttle of coal and a bucket of water for the day’s use. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs for the individual tastes of children. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly. After ten hours in school, the teacher should spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books. Women teachers who marry or engage in other unseemly conduct will be dismissed. Every teacher should lay aside from his pay a goodly sum for his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents a pool or public hall, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason for suspecting his worth, intentions, integrity and honesty. The teacher who performs his labors faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of 25 cents a week in his pay providing the board of education approves. You can find more from the South Dakota Historical Collections in the Chilson Collection in the USD Archives.

Today we got a lesson in photography. Sarah, the digitization and photographs associate at USD, taught us how to use the Archives’ Pentax digital camera to take high-resolution photographs for our student projects. She introduced us to the camera and helped us figure out everything from changing the lens cover to setting the light manually. We struggled at first but, with practice, we became more comfortable with the camera. As you can see in these before and after shots, we went from major lighting issues to near perfection in no time! before (photo credit: Hannah) after (photo credit: Kelly)

The Delzell Education Center sits where a small lake once existed? According to the Dedication for the School of Education Building (1963), Due to the type of soil it was necessary to drive 271 wooden pilings to a depth of about 35 feet. These wooden pilings, which are creosoted and approximately the size of large telephone poles, serve to stabilize the soil and support the building. The building rests entirely on these pilings. Crazy, huh?

William Henry Over was a natural historian who lived in Vermillion from 1913 to 1956. While in Vermillion, he served first as the Assistant Curator and then full Curator for the University Museum. He studied numerous subjects relating to the natural world, including botany; however, until recently, little was known about Over’s work with plants. In 2009, a tattered box was found in the University Herbarium, and this box contained numerous documents relevant to Over’s botanical pursuits. As a part of an undergraduate Honors Thesis, a student worker from Archives & Special Collections researched the documents’ historical context and used this research to more fully understand Over’s work with the plants of South Dakota. While Over had some difficulty advancing botany in South Dakota the way he originally planned, he still made significant contributions to the field. He established the University Herbarium in 1913, which is still in use today. Also, Over was the first botanist in 20th century South Dakota to develop a manual of the entire state’s flora, and other botanists have since used Over’s work as a tool to understand the state’s flora. Over was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University in 1936, and he was able to publish Wild Flowers of South Dakota in 1942 as a way to encourage both children and adults to appreciate the beauty of plants. One of Over’s most lasting contributions to botany in South Dakota was the fact that he passionately encouraged others to appreciate the state’s botanical diversity and beauty. To view the documents from the W.H. Over Collection in person, please contact the USD Archives & Special Collections. Sample title page of Over and Petry’s First Vascular Flora of South Dakota (ca. 1924-1926). Proof drawing published in Over’s Wild Flowers of South Dakota (1942). Herbarium specimen collected by Over in 1920.