Architectural Drawings of Vermillion (SD) Buildings

The Archives and Special Collections received 31 boxes of rolled architectural drawings, floor plans, and blueprints of buildings in Vermillion SD and the University of South Dakota.

We are in the process of flattening and inventorying this gift. Projects date from 1920s to 2000s. Some of the projects are the Clay County Courthouse, Vermillion public schools, DakotaDome, Chemistry Building fire repair, animal quarters, and many dorms. The brief inventory included with the gift also lists items that are not buildings, such as a plot plan/old map and campus development. I look forward to finding them.

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We salute F. Belle Conrow during this #InternationalWomensDay.

She was active and influential in politics and public education in the early 20^th century at the local (Vermillion SD) level and the state level. She also wrote for a local newspaper, the Vermillion Plain Talk.

1866 – birth.

Circa 1888 – graduation from USD and started teaching at Vermillion.

1901 – authored history section of Peterson’s Illustrated Historical Atlas of Clay County.

1911-1914 – Clay County superintendent of schools.

1924 – authored Makers of History; Today and Yesterday.

1926-1930 – Clay County auditor.

1930s– authored 3 stories in Legends of the Mighty Sioux.

1931 – authored Picture Studies: Complete.

1937 – death.

Her picture and obituary can be found at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15663153/florence-belle-conrow.

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Happy Valentine’s

From the Palmer Sigvald Gilbertson Collection

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Missouri River Place Names

What bend of the Missouri River between Vermillion and Yankton, SD is named after a famed 19^th century naturalist who stayed at Fort Vermillion in 1843? He was traveling on the Missouri River while researching his book on quadrupeds? Archives and Special Collections has his quadruped and bird books in the Chilson Collection.

Image from quadruped book in the Chilson Collection.

The answer and the source of this information can be found in Herbert Schell’s History of Clay County, 1976, page 13.

 

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