Northern State University Archives

Northern State University Archives The University Archives & Special Collections exists primarily to preserve the history of Northern State University, Aberdeen, and South Dakota.

This morning we welcomed the Class of 1974 to the 50-Year Alumni Club! Here is a selection of photos from their 4 years ...
10/04/2024

This morning we welcomed the Class of 1974 to the 50-Year Alumni Club! Here is a selection of photos from their 4 years at NSC that were displayed during the brunch event.

Any identifying information that we have is included in the photo captions. If you can provide additional names, feel free to comment!

This morning we welcomed the Class of 1973 to the 50-Year Alumni Club! Here is a selection of photos from their 4 years ...
10/06/2023

This morning we welcomed the Class of 1973 to the 50-Year Alumni Club! Here is a selection of photos from their 4 years at NSC that were displayed during the brunch event.

Any identifying information that we have is included in the photo captions. If you can provide additional names, feel free to comment!

Confession: the Archivist keeps a bookmark folder called "Bleak Poetry from the Pasque." Something ineffable must have i...
05/06/2022

Confession: the Archivist keeps a bookmark folder called "Bleak Poetry from the Pasque." Something ineffable must have inspired past Northern poets over many years to reach for the depths of despair in their verses.

The intention was to save up the desolate rhymes and post them all at once for maximum impact, but Rudolf G. Ruste's "The Campus Trees" (1925) was too good to pass up for the theme. As a suitably stark accompaniment, we present also a picture of trees coated in ice from fire hoses after the Central Building was destroyed by fire in January 1961.

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Image sources: (1) http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/p16707coll6/id/1531/rec/57 | (2) http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/nimages/id/31/rec/150

In the earlier half of the 20th century, Arbor Day was a major event on the Northern campus--often encompassing a full p...
05/06/2022

In the earlier half of the 20th century, Arbor Day was a major event on the Northern campus--often encompassing a full program of songs, poetry readings and speeches followed by a mass tree planting.

Here is an excerpt from President Theodore Roosevelt's 1907 Arbor Day proclamation, which was reprinted in the Exponent. A few years after establishing the U.S. Forest Service, the Conservationist President demonstrates a very modern commitment to sustainability:

"[F]orests which are so used that they can not renew themselves will soon vanish, and with them all their benefits. A true forest is not only a storehouse full of wood, but, as it were, a factory of wood, and at the same time a reservoir of water...."

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Image source: http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/p16707coll7/id/1112/rec/128

It's hard to imagine today, but there was a time when virtually no shade trees existed in Aberdeen outside of the land o...
05/06/2022

It's hard to imagine today, but there was a time when virtually no shade trees existed in Aberdeen outside of the land owned by Andrew Melgaard in the southern part of town. Before he ultimately donated the property to create Melgaard Park, says this excerpt from the book "Aberdeen's Parkland Heritage," Melgaard already welcomed picnickers seeking a respite from the summer heat.

Melgaard's land was a "tree claim" as touted by J.E. Dyer in our previous post. But no, the cultivation was not as easy as Dyer made it sound; said former Aberdeen mayor John Wade at the dedication of a monument to Melgaard in 1931:

"Many of you within the sound of my voice knew how difficult it was in those early days to get trees started on occount [sic] of dry weather, hot winds and various other things. Many times he was tempted to give up to despair, but he had a will as adament [sic] as the rock that supports his statue. He kept on with his work."
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Image source: http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/local/id/10289/rec/5

"Dakota for the most part is destitute of trees," begins this passage from the 1884 book "Dakota: Observations of a Tend...
05/06/2022

"Dakota for the most part is destitute of trees," begins this passage from the 1884 book "Dakota: Observations of a Tenderfoot," which aimed to attract new settlers to the pre-statehood territory. So this month's on the theme of could be a challenge, but we'll do our best!

Despite the natural treelessness of the prairie ecosystem, "Tenderfoot" author J.E. Dyer optimistically details in the second paragraph how the cultivation of trees can provide a nearly effortless return on investment through lumber sales. But was it really that easy? Stay tuned...
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Image source: http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/local/id/10884/rec/5


This month's theme is , in celebration of the recent release of 1950 Census schedules by the National Archives. Full ...
04/08/2022

This month's theme is , in celebration of the recent release of 1950 Census schedules by the National Archives. Full census data--including name, address, age, and profession--is legally allowed to be released only 72 years after the fact!

Since the full Census is taken every 10 years, the 1950 release gives us a glimpse of a neighborhood that did not exist in 1940 and would nearly vanish by 1960: Quonsville, a collection of Quonset huts on the Northern campus that housed WWII veteran students and their families.

Quonsville was located in the area south of the library currently occupied by Great Plains West & East, McArthur-Welsh, Steele, and Kramer residence halls. In the attached images we have: a screenshot of the first page of Census population schedules for Quonsville (see "N.S.T.C. Quonset Huts" in left column); the Chilson family outside of their hut; a Quonset Hut under construction; and the Cranston family in their Quonset kitchen around 1950.

All Quonsville residents surveyed in 1950 can be found on pp. 40-45 here: https://1950census.archives.gov/search/?state=SD&county=Brown&ed=7-24

Other image sources: (2) http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/nimages/id/48866/rec/24 | (3) http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/nimages/id/48887/rec/27 | (4) http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/nimages/id/48523/rec/31

Today is GivN day at NSU. Williams Library and the NSU Archives are one of the options for donating. Today is an oppor...
04/06/2022

Today is GivN day at NSU. Williams Library and the NSU Archives are one of the options for donating. Today is an opportunity for new donors to show their support for this important project. Any level of donation is welcome, and donations are matched up to $1,000.

https://givingday.northern.edu/campaigns/beulah-williams-library

In 1924 it was headline news when the NNIS sixth year girls' basketball team "walloped" the faculty men's team, includin...
03/10/2022

In 1924 it was headline news when the NNIS sixth year girls' basketball team "walloped" the faculty men's team, including President H.W. Foght!

Images: (1) Article from the Exponent, Jan. 29, 1924. (2) The Girls' Basketball teams in the 1924 Pasque yearbook, with the victorious Sixth Years at top center.

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Sources: (1) http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/p16707coll7/id/5961/rec/1
(2) http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/digital/collection/p16707coll6/id/18751/rec/14
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Enjoy these fun photos of the Dance Club, circa 1980!
07/19/2021

Enjoy these fun photos of the Dance Club, circa 1980!

Alumni Spotlight: This month we are highlighting Ryan Miller, who attended Northern from 1994-1998. During his time at N...
07/12/2021

Alumni Spotlight: This month we are highlighting Ryan Miller, who attended Northern from 1994-1998. During his time at NSU, Miller played basketball and in 1998 led the team as captain to a region championship, the Elite 8 game, and a #3 ranking in Division II. A two-time All-Conference award winner, All-Academic and All-American at NSU, he was named to the Northern State Hall of Fame in 2013. Currently, Ryan Miller is the assistant head coach at Creighton University.

Did you know? Graham Hall was originally named Ladies' Hall! Upon its completion in February 1904, the ladies' dormitory...
07/05/2021

Did you know? Graham Hall was originally named Ladies' Hall! Upon its completion in February 1904, the ladies' dormitory housed 62 women and provided dining services for 120 students. In 1917, the building was renamed Graham Hall, after one of the first faculty members, music teacher Lydia Graham. Enjoy these past photographs of Graham Hall!

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1200 S Jay Street
Aberdeen, SD
57401

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