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100th South Dakota Legislative Session is in 2025.

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?

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#ArchivesHashtagParty asked archives across the USA to share their favorite repetitive designs and patterns for #ArchivesPatterns. We love the piano keyboard pattern on one of the local National Music Museum buildings.

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President Dwight Eisenhower’s Letter to Dean Lewis Akeley

The letter from President Eisenhower to Dean Akeley highlights the admiration the president had for Akeley's mentorship and contributions to society.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote a letter to University of South Dakota (USD) Dean Lewis E. Akeley dated May 26, 1958. At that time Dean Akeley was 97 years old. He arrived at the University of Dakota in 1887 (South Dakota became as state in 1889) and was a faculty member for 74 years. Akeley was Dean of the College of Engineering from 1908-1933. Many of his students that became world…

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The 1967 move of the W. H. Over Museum to the Carnegie Building: Arne Larson and Bobby Penn

In 1967, the W. H. Over Museum, under the direction of James Howard, moved to the Carnegie building. Other people involved included, Arne Larson (Shrine to Music), Oscar Howe, and Bobby Penn.

In 1967 the University of South Dakota (USD) library moved out of the Carnegie Building it occupied since 1911. An addition to the building doubled its capacity in 1940, but 25 years later it was too small to accommodate the increased needs of the students and faculty.  The building became home to a museum.  That summer the W. H. Over Dakotah Museum (now known as the W. H. Over Museum)…

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What connects Vermillion, SD and Palisades State Park?

William Lyon was born and grew up in Vermillion, SD. His widow Winona Lyon donated the land containing the beautiful palisades to the state of South Dakota. Additional land will be added to the park during the summer of 2024, doubling the size of the park. Palisades State Park is one of the most unique areas in South Dakota. Split Rock Creek, which flows through the park, is lined with Sioux…

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University of South Dakota Commencement of June 6, 1966: A Tribute to President I. D. Weeks

A tribute to the longest serving president of the University of South Dakota. I. D. Weeks.

The June 6, 1966, 84th annual spring commencement, marked the last time that President I. D. Weeks presided over a university graduation ceremony. The importance of this ceremony is clear from its gold program cover and the dignitaries present asked to comment on President Weeks’ many accomplishments for the university, the state, and nation. As part of the ceremony, President Week received a…

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Happy National Poetry Month: The oldest book in the Archives and Special Collections is a poetry book in Latin.

Incipit laus Sancti Bernardi Abatis; Laus de Virgine Maria: Ave mater misericordie may be the oldest book in the Archives and Special Collections. Image is a page from Bernard, and Innocentius III. Incipit laus Sancti Bernardi Abatis; Laus de Virgine Maria: Ave mater misericordie. s.n., 1450. (CHILSON COLLECTION / 3RD FLOOR ; BX890.B43 L3x). I found this description of the book on a sheet of…

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Open house for Archives & Special Collections, Digital Humanities, Digital Imaging Lab, and South Dakota Oral History Center

Thursday, April 18, 20244:00-6:00pm IDW 3rd Floor 321Join us for refreshments, guided tours, interactive stations and guest speakers.

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Celebrating 50 Years of Tiospaye and the 50th Annual Wacipi

Over 600 images from the USD Photograph Collection in the Archives and Special Collections have been added to the Digital Library of South Dakota in celebration of 50 years of Tiospaye and the 50th Annual Wacipi. The wacipi was and continues to be hosted by the Native American student group the Tiospaye Student Council, originally founded in 1957. First known as the Wapaha Club, and under the…

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Celebrating 50 Years of Tiospaye

Installation view in the John A. Day Gallery, Warren M. Lee Center for the Fine Arts Photograph courtesy Amy Fill, University Art Galleries The John A. Day Gallery at the University of South Dakota is exhibiting historical images from the USD Photograph Collection and recordings from the South Dakota Oral History Center through March 28, in celebration of the long history of the student led…

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In the Mahoney Music Collection are two competing music histories.

Charles Burney’s and John Hawkins’s multi-volume histories were both published in London in the late 1700s (around 1776.) How are they different, and how are they similar? Why did the authors say negative comments about the other’s history?

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Long Lost 1st Dakota Cavalry Ledger

John Andrews from South Dakota Magazine wrote a feature on Captain Miner’s 1st Dakota Cavalry ledger held in the USD Archives and Special Collections for the Magazine’s September/October 2022 issue. Read an excerpt of A Historical Treasure Hunt and learn about the ledger’s imaging for the Digital Library of South Dakota.

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Louella Cable was an aquatic biologist, the first female scientist hired by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, a prolithic researcher, and a great scientific illustrator.

Drawing by Cable from Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries Volume XLVIII. Dr. Cable received B.A. (1926) and M.A. (1927) degrees from the University of South Dakota. She worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, later called the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, from 1927 to 1970. Louella Cable, photograph from the Coyote yearbook.

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The University of South Dakota Rodeo Club

In 1964, the University of South Dakota (USD) student newspaper, the Volante and the Vermillion Plain Talk mentioned USD Rodeo Club activities several times. That March the club signed a contract for livestock for the upcoming fourth annual intercollegiate rodeo held in Vermillion on May 2nd and 3rd. Events those two days included a parade, a rodeo competition, and a dance. Colleges from North…

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The papers of Archie M. Gubbrud, governor of South Dakota 1961-1965, contain folders on Civil Rights.

These are in the Archives and Special Collections. Governor Archie Gubbrud In the I.D. Weeks Library are the reports of the South Dakota Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The earliest one in the library is dated March 1963 and is about discrimination against Black airmen (especially with housing, restaurants, and bars) in Rapid City, South Dakota, call number…

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Wouldn't this make a great Charter Day cake?

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 162st anniversary of the establishment of the University by the first Dakota Territory Legislature in 1862, 141th anniversary of the signing of the charter in 1883, and 102 years since…

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2024 01 - Medieval graphic novel

La Chirurgie: Codex Sloane 1977 is a full color facsimile of an 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 alternating blue and red backgrounds and human figures. The top row on each of these pages are Christian scenes from “Annunciation to…