The Yellow & Blue Podcast | SDState Stories in America’s 250th Year | S2E7

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From handwritten letters to one-of-a-kind artifacts, history isn’t just something we read about — it’s something we preserve, protect and rediscover. As the nation approaches America’s 250th birthday, "The Yellow & Blue Podcast" takes a closer look at the stories that connect our campus to the broader American experience.

Michele Christian, archivist and special collections librarian at Hilton Briggs Library at South Dakota State University, uncovers fascinating artifacts from the SDSU Archives — from a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol on 9/11 to groundbreaking agricultural innovations and rare pieces tied to figures like Calvin Coolidge.

Discover how these items help tell the story of resilience, innovation and community — both at SDState and across the nation.

[Heidi]: So, yeah, in June 1884, when this record would have been started, the first building on campus was in progress called Old Central, and I'm sure there are some notes of that in here.

[Michelle]: Oh, there are notes about that. That was a problematic building.

[Heidi]: It sounds like it. Like they started it and it wasn't finished and there was no heat and …

[Michelle]: Yeah, it was a ...

[Heidi]: I'm sure this book tells all those tales.

[Michelle]: Yes, it does. It tells all the stories.

[Heidi]: Hello, Jackrabbits Nation. My name is Heidi Bushong, and this is the Yellow and Blue Podcast.

From handwritten letters to one-of-a-kind artifacts, history isn't just something we read about. It's something we preserve, protect and rediscover. As the nation approaches America's 250th birthday, we're taking a closer look at the stories that connect our campus to the broader American experience.

Michelle Christian, archivist and special collections librarian at Hilton Briggs Library here at South Dakota State University, is here today to explore some of the most fascinating pieces housed right here in the SDSU Archives. Thank you so much for being here today, Michelle.

[Michelle]: Thank you, Heidi.

[Heidi]: So, Michelle, today we're here at Hilton Briggs Library in the SDSU Archives, where you work for people who may not know, what are the archives?

[Michelle]: So, in the archives, we collect a variety of materials. We house the Sen. Thomas A. Daschle Congressional Papers. That is our single largest collection in the archives, and it is probably one of the most used collections we have as well. It consists of materials from when Sen. Daschle was in office in the House and the Senate, and some materials relating to his years after.

So, we also have the university archives, which documents the activities of the university, and we have materials also related to other areas of this part of the state that document like farm life, town activities.

We also have a 15,000 rare book collection in the archives as well, focusing mostly on South Dakota.

[Heidi]: It's such a broad variety of items here at the SDSU Archives, and we'll touch on some of those today. How do items kind of make their way into the archives?

[Michelle]: Well, that's a variety of ways. Many of the materials we get are brought to the archives by donors. So, there'll be somebody in town or nearby that runs across something such as ledgers from their family's businesses from the early 20th century, and they'll be like, “Do you want these?” And it documents, actually tells the story of that part of that town, the activities that were going on.

So, it's really fascinating. We've received things like that, farm ledgers and diaries and meeting minutes from local clubs and just little bits of everything that document this part of the area.

The other way we get materials is from offices on campus. Regularly, many of them send over or we pick up materials, boxes and boxes of papers to add to the archives to document more of the history of the university.

[Heidi]: Very cool. Do you happen to know how many materials, like physical materials, are in the archives?

[Michelle]: We have approximately 12,000 linear feet of records and artifacts and books.

[Heidi]: Where on earth is that all kept?

[Michelle]: Well, there's some kept here, and then we do have an offsite storage space across campus.

[Heidi]: I know you say that you're running out of space, and that's kind of easy to see when you say you have 12,000 linear feet of archives.

[Michelle]: Yes.

[Heidi]: Oh, my goodness.

[Michelle]: I mean, and it includes everything between wire recordings all the way to digital files that we got last week. So, it's a little bit of everything, videos, films, audio recordings, just everything.

[Heidi]: Just little pieces of history.

[Michelle]: Little pieces of history, yeah.

[Heidi]: Very cool. Well, so today we have five items from the archives that we're going to talk about in relation to America's 250th birthday. Some things that you pulled and thought would be interesting to share.

The first one I think is pretty darn interesting. The United States flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol during 9/11 that was gifted to then Sen. Tom Daschle by Capitol Police. Tell me about this flag. What is the story behind that?

[Michelle]: So, during Sept. 11, 2001, Sen. Daschle was the Senate majority leader, and Sept. 11 was when the United States was attacked, New York and Washington, D.C., and other areas. So, the flag was flown over the Capitol during the attacks, and the Capitol Police brought it down and presented it to Sen. Daschle. At that time, he was responsible for coordinating the Senate's immediate response, working with President Bush and the leadership of the House of Representatives. And he was also really instrumental in ensuring that the work of the United States government continued despite the chaos that was going on in the country. And for him to have been given the flag by the Capitol Police just says how important his work was.

[Heidi]: Yeah, I would concur with that. Preparing for this, I went back and watched Sen. Daschle's recounts of the day and stuff like that. And he and Trent Lott both made speeches at that point in time and did make sure, like you had said, that Congress continued. And you know, it's kind of weird, like every American's life was affected that day. And continually beyond that, even if you were born yet or not, because that's one thing that I had thought about before recording this was our generation of students right now weren't even alive when that happened.

[Michelle]: No, they were not.

[Heidi]: But it changed like American life in a lot of ways, especially like the way we travel, TSA, Homeland Security, just a lot of different things. In watching the recount of his events, one thing that I thought was totally South Dakotan was the Aberdeen Police Department, his hometown and where his mom lived, went and picked up his mom and took her to the police department just to make sure that she was safe. Like no one even like called or anything like that. I just think that really just kind of speaks to the character of our state and South Dakota.
But in further talking about different items that are here in the Daschle Research Study, all of his papers were donated. This flag was donated, but not long after, there was an anthrax attack on his office. Can you tell me about that?

[Michelle]: So, on Oct. 15, 2001, one of his staffers opened a letter that was sent to the senator. And within that letter was white powder containing anthrax. And well, the white powder spilled out and released the bacteria around the space, exposing the staff to it.

The Capitol complex was shut down. So, it wasn't just his office, the whole complex shut down. So, they began testing the area, they began testing the people. And, so, we do have items from the senator's office that went through the radiation process.

[Heidi]: And you definitely can tell.

[Michelle]: Some of them didn't fare so well going through the hard blast of radiation.

[Heidi]: In watching Daschle's accounts from 9/11 and this not happening long after, he said that that attack alone completely changed the way that they opened mail at the Capitol. You can look at these items in the Daschle Research Study and through his special selection of archives as well. He donated them all to our university. And the research study is on the second floor of the Briggs Library here at SDSU.

The next item that I want to talk about is McFadden's USDA certificate for the variety of Hope wheat. So those look like they're originals.

[Michelle]: They are.

[Heidi]: So maybe let's, for context, tell people, who was Edgar McFadden?

[Michelle]: Edgar McFadden was a pioneering American plant breeder, best known for developing Hope wheat, which was the first variety resistant to stem rust. He was born on a farm in Webster, South Dakota. He attended South Dakota State University and continued breeding on his own farm.

[Heidi]: To your point, true impact was felt during World War II because it allowed yields to increase. In 1947, Reader’s Digest estimated that it prevented 25 million Americans from starvation and saved farmers more than $400 million. So that's pretty cool.

What is so significant about these particular certificates and having them here?

[Michelle]: Well, the certificates means that the breed was registered, so it's under his name. But acknowledgement that he was the one who developed this breed of wheat.

[Heidi]: Very cool. Very cool.

Our next item that we're going to talk about here is probably the oldest one that we're going to talk about today. The record book for Dakota Agricultural College.

[Michelle]: This is the ledger of the Dakota Agricultural College Board of Regents. So, at this time, this was before the state became a state, right? So, we were still a territory, and so the university had its own Board of Regents, or the college had its own Board of Regents. And so that group pretty much managed everything. You know, it set up coursework, hired faculty. The president oversaw the building projects. They pretty much did a little of everything. And this is literally a record of the first five years of the college, five, six years.

[Heidi]: Because this is the first record of our university, I think it's kind of important to talk about how our university was established, right? So, it was established in 1881 before South Dakota statehood, like you had said. J.O. Scobie, a lawyer in Brookings, and then territorial legislature. People told him to bring back the prison, but people already laid claim to that.

[Michelle]: Yes.

[Heidi]: So, he took the university instead.

[Michelle]: Right.

[Heidi]: Kind of crazy to think about. At SDSU, we are a land-grant university, which is established by the Morrill Act. And through my research, it says that each state was given 30,000 acres of public land for every member in its congressional delegation. Then, and still, we have three, meaning 90,000 acres. The states sold the land to generate funds for the university, specifically in areas of engineering, agriculture, military science, hence the term land-grant college. But the physical location of campus was purchased by the citizens of Brookings for $600. They thought this plot northeast of town looked pretty darn nice. So yeah, in June 1884, when this record would have been started, the first building on campus, was in progress, called Old Central. And I'm sure there are some notes of that in here.

[Michelle]: Oh, there are notes about that. That was a problematic building.

[Heidi]: It sounds like it. Like they started it, and it wasn't finished, and there was no heat.

[Michelle]: Yep. It was a ...

[Heidi]: I'm sure this book tells all those tales.

[Michelle]: It does. It tells all the stories.

[Heidi]: And just for context, to show how much our university has grown since then, in fall of 1885, there were 62 students enrolled. And, so, while this is a pretty big book, and I would love to read it, I'm sure that it has so many details as to different pieces of SDSU history.

[Michelle]: It does. It does.

[Heidi]: Is this an item that people really know about?

[Michelle]: No. No, it isn't. This is one of the more kind of hidden treasure that we have here.

[Heidi]: Why did you bring it up? I know I kind of tasked you with picking out items. Why did you pick this one?

[Michelle]: Actually, I asked my staff to help me decide items to pick. And Crystal Gamradt, our longest employee in the archives, she's been here since it started in 1997. So, she knows pretty much about all of the collections. And, so, this came way before I did, so I had no idea that this was here. But she mentioned it, and I thought, this is incredible. This is an incredible story to share. The early beginnings of the Dakota Agricultural College, South Dakota State University. I mean, this is how we began. And this is an amazing piece of history.

[Heidi]: The next pieces that we're going to talk about are the trowel and mortar board used by President Calvin Coolidge and then first lady Grace Coolidge when laying the cornerstone of Coolidge Sylvan Theatre. He's the only sitting U.S. president to ever visit campus. Why were the Coolidges in Brookings in September of 1927?

[Michelle]: They were invited to come to the college to dedicate Lincoln Memorial Library. So they were here on Sept. 10, 1927, to dedicate that building and also lay the cornerstone of the Coolidge Sylvan Theatre.

[Heidi]: Very cool. Very cool. Both landmarks still stand today. The Coolidge Sylvan Theatre, it's pretty cool. One of the most picturesque places on campus. Was gifted to the university by several classes, and you can tell when you're looking at it, you know, this is from this class of 1930 or, you know, different segments like that. Why do you think that these pieces are a cool part of SDSU and American history?

[Michelle]: Well, like you said, Coolidge was the first and probably the only sitting president to come, and to have a sitting president come and dedicate one of your buildings is an important piece of SDSU history.

[Heidi]: Yes, absolutely. When researching this, I think it's worth noting that Calvin Coolidge was pretty darn fond of South Dakota.

[Michelle]: Oh, he was. He really enjoyed going out to the West River. Yeah, to West River. He really enjoyed being out in the Black Hills.

[Heidi]: One thing that probably worked out in our favor was in the summer of 1927, he made the State Game Lodge in Custer State Park the Summer White House. So, he and Grace and his family were there that summer. They renamed, I believe, like a creek or stream in Custer State Park after her then, too. And that same summer, he also pledged support, federal funding to Mount Rushmore, Aug. 10, 1927. And exactly one month later, Sept. 10, 1927, he's on our campus dedicating Lincoln Memorial Library.

[Michelle]: And it was a pretty big event in town. He had 15,000 people visit to hear him speak.

[Heidi]: Yes, so many. And Lincoln is dedicated after President Abraham Lincoln for his work in the Morrill Act as well.

So, Michelle, I know the archives has quite a few items from N.E. Hansen. He was a professor of horticulture starting in 1895. World renowned in agriculture and plant breeding. You mentioned that the way some of these items came to you guys was pretty interesting. So, I'd love to hear about that.

[Michelle]: So, a few years ago, they were cleaning out the attic space of Old Hort. And that's where a lot of his items were stored. And they ran across these pieces. And it was really interesting for them to actually still survive being up in the attic of Old Hort for, gosh, 60 years without anybody touching them. Now they're over 100 years old. Hansen died in 1950. So, some of the stuff was still up there. One of the faculty on campus, because this was offered to him, had decided that it was best if it came to us. That was pretty neat to be recognized as a place that would take care of something of such importance.

[Heidi]: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's what you're here to do, right?

[Michelle]: It is. It is. Yeah, it is.

[Heidi]: It's great to have those items in the collection. A little bit more about N.E. Hansen and his work. He traveled the world collecting fruits, flowers and other plants, typically of the drought resistant variety, to kind of bring that livelihood to the Great Plains. He went on eight trips to various sites in Europe and Asia. And I know some of the original trees he planted on campus still stand today. And a lot of his varieties can be found in McCrory Gardens, too.

[Michelle]: Yes.

[Heidi]: So, tell me about some of the items that are in the archives, or more about that plant variety there.

[Michelle]: So, N.E. Hansen would go to places like China and Russia and Siberia looking for, as you said, drought resistant, cold resistant, things that would actually survive the harsh environment of South Dakota.

[Heidi]: Fair.

[Michelle]: And so, he would bring back many varieties of things, many of which, such as alfalfa, he brought back Cossack alfalfa strain, so he could develop more robust forage plants for farmers and for the lands. When he was here, he also established a greenhouse dedicated specifically for plant breeding, which was one of the first in the world.

[Heidi]: Wow.

[Michelle]: Yeah.

[Heidi]: Pretty revolutionary for a small spot in South Dakota.

[Michelle]: He was. So, a lot of the plants that we have in our specimen system are clovers and varieties of rose plants that he actually developed several rose varieties as well. A lot of these are in Russian. When we got them, they were falling off. And so, we try to do our best to put them into acid-free materials and make sure that they continue to survive, hopefully another hundred years, because this is from his trip to Asia in 1924.

[Heidi]: Wow.

[Michelle]: We have earlier ones from the 1890s and such, too, but those aren't specifically dated as that, but kind of figure out which trip he brought what back with.

[Heidi]: When looking through the archives, it looks like you guys were able to digitize a bunch of the plant specimens.

[Michelle]: Yes.

[Heidi]: So quick, easy way where people can go and check that stuff out now.

[Michelle]: Absolutely. And we also have his notebooks from when he did his research on a variety of plants as well. So, if you're interested in reading his thoughts and his notes.

[Heidi]: As we celebrate the 250th birthday of America and reflect on the history, why is preserving things like this and other pieces of SDSU history so important?

[Michelle]: This is an example of the work of the faculty. And one of the things that's really important about the research on this campus is that the faculty who do them do amazing things. And a lot of us don't know all of the activities, all of what they do. And so, preserving items like this and other materials relating to faculty research is extremely important because that also tells the story of the university. And it tells the story of the evolution of that field because our faculty are top in their field. And they should be recognized and their memories should be preserved.

[Heidi]: Michelle, you have people who come to look at these materials and still seek to see these things today. What ways are they being used?

[Michelle]: A lot of genealogical research. People come here to find out more about their relatives. But even more so, our materials are still used in current research. Faculty today are using our collections to help see how things were done from former faculty so that they could see what has changed in the field and to see, you know, where the projection, where things are going. It's very interesting, some of the innovative ways our archives are being used.

[Heidi]: Always learning from history.

[Michelle]: Always learning from history. Yeah.

[Heidi]: Thank you so much for being here today, Michelle, for talking about America's 250th and some important things in the SDSU Archives.

This has been the Yellow and Blue Podcast. We'll see you next time.