Rex Butler Collection of Henry and Frank H. Butler Photographs – An Exhibition
November 24, 2025 – May 12, 2026 University of South Dakota, University Libraries Gallery, 1st Floor I.D. Weeks
Step into the world of Henry Clay Butler, Vermillion’s distinguished first pioneer photographer and his nephew, Frank H. Butler. From Main Street to lower Vermillion to river scenes, trains, the First Baptist Church, and the town’s first log schoolhouse, these images chart a community coming into focus on the Northern Plains. The Sioux City Corn Palace in Sioux City, Iowa, as well as the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, also appear. This exhibition features never-before-seen photographs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, donated to the Archives & Special Collections by Rex Butler, grandson of Frank H. Butler.
If you are a person with a disability and need a special accommodation to fully participate, please contact the Office of Accessibility at least 48 hours prior to the event. Students and the public can contact the Office of Accessibility at 605-658-3745 or accessibility@usd.edu. Faculty and staff should contact Human Resources at 605-658-3660.
Celebrating 50 Years of Tiospayeis a pop up installation which grew out of several initiatives.
USD Native Services(NSS),USD Archives and Special Collections(A&SC), and Digital Imaging Lab, Digital Library and Photographs (DIL/DL/P) partnered together to locate, identify, and digitize images related to the Annual Wacipi held in the A&SC. The wacipi was and continues to be hosted by the Tiospaye Student Council, the Native American student group on campus, founded in 1957. The photographs range in date from 1966 to 1999 and also feature members of the Tiospaye Student Council, USD Native alumni, and various events held in collaboration with the Annual Wacipi.
Over the past year, this unique partnership included the identification of more than 700 negatives by Dr. John Little, Director of Native Recruitment & Alumni Engagement. Sarah Hanson-Pareek, head of the DIL/DL/P, and Library Technology Librarian Anne Hinseth imaged the negatives and efforts are now underway to have them entered in theDigital Library of South Dakotafor the 50thAnniversary Wacipi on April 6 and April 7 at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Amy Fill, director of the University Art Galleries, selected four images from the collection to place on view in the Day Gallery.
The wacipi project is part of a larger project by NSS focused on finding all photographs featuring Native content throughout USD’s history held in the A&SC. Research includes other formats and materials held both in the A&SC and the South Dakota Oral History Center. Of particular importance is an early wacipi recording at USD from 1971, AIRP 625, in which “participants describe costumes, music, and giveaways.” The recording is included in this exhibition.
Tiospaye Student Council Drum at the 20thAnnual USD Wacipi, Hosted and Organized by the Tiospaye Student Council,DakotaDome, 1992
Negative number: 13681.1.2, Series 10, Box 122
Drum Group at the 21stAnnual USD Wacipi, Hosted and Organized by the Tiospaye Student Council,DakotaDome, 1993
Negative number: 6370.31, Series 11
19thAnnual USD Wacipi, Hosted and Organized by the Tiospaye Student Council,DakotaDome, 1991
Negative number: 6034.19, Series 11
Institute of Indian Studies Monthly Wacipi, Hosted by Germaine and Adam Sitting Crow, Armory, March 1971
Starting in the 1970-1971 academic year, the Institute of Indian Studies in collaboration with the W. H. Over Museum started hosting monthly wacipis.
Negative number: 10624.9.2, Series 10, Box 89
Photographs from the USD Photograph Collection, USD Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
AIRP 625 (recorded in 1970): Sound recording of a pow wow at the University of South Dakota. Participants describe costumes, the music, giveaways, and the reasons for holding pow wows.
Sound recording from the American Indian Research Project (AIRP), South Dakota Oral History Center, University Libraries, University of South Dakota
Originally posted at https://archivesandspecialcollections.wordpress.com/2024/03/20/celebrating-50-years-of-tiospaye/
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