FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Feb. 13, 2008
CONTACT:  Helen B Louise, (605) 773-3798, Helen.Louise@state.sd.us

Cultural Heritage Center exhibits recent donations

PIERRE, SD -- Select items recently donated to the South Dakota State Historical Society are currently on display in the lobby of the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center. 

Some items the museum is displaying include a 1945 Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad calendar; a Lakota pouch decorated with a badger pelt; a WWI pillowcase from Camp Cody, NM; a child’s rocking chair from the 1890s; items from the old Odemark Bar in Pierre; a 1970s Lite-Brite game, and others.

State Archives recent donations include two panoramic photographs, one of White Lake’s Main Street in 1910, and the 15^th Annual Farm Picnic in Ardmore, dated July 16, 1927 and featuring President Calvin Coolidge; journals of surveyor David Keeler from 1871-1874; Richard Miller’s World War I photo scrapbook; the 1911 sketchbook and diary notebook of Ethel May Wright; Record of Dog Licenses for Marshall County – 1932; South Dakota Stallion Registry Board – Stud Registry; and a promotional map for South Dakota titled, “South Dakota: Where the West Still Lives!”

The exhibit presents visitors with a sampling of the recent donations, and helps show the various types of items that the museum and archives actively collect. 

“It is amazing the wide range of items the museum and archives collect,” said Helen B Louise, museum director. “Everything from photographs to everyday household items, old and modern -- the Society collects just about every type of material that helps document the human history from across the state.”

If you have any items that you would like to donate to the South Dakota State Historical Society, please contact Dan Brosz, Curator of Collections at (605) 773-6013, or Matthew Reitzel, Manuscript Archivist at (605) 773-3615.