Old Courthouse Museum

Make time for history at the Old Courthouse Museum. This beautifully-restored 1800s quartzite building has three floors of regional history exhibits. The Museum store includes unique and affordable Dakota-made gifts for the whole family.

Free admission. Free parking. Wheelchair accessible. Open daily. Call (605) 367-4210 ext. 0 or email for more information about current exhibits and fun, educational programs for all ages. Click Here for more Information.

Pettigrew Home and Museum

Welcome to the Past! Tour the elegant 1889 Queen Anne-style home of South Dakota's first senator, Richard Pettigrew. Take a guided tour of the historic home, or browse the museum galleries and discover the Sioux Falls of the late 1800s.

Free admission. Free parking. Wheelchair accessible. Open Monday through Sunday. Call (605) 367-7097 or email for more information. Click Here for more Information.

Memories of World War II: Photographs From the Archives of the Associated Press

The Old Courthouse Museum is proud to present the traveling exhibit Memories of World War II, Photographs from the Archives of The Associated Press, scheduled to open September 2nd and run through October 26th, 2008.
  
As veterans of World War II converged on Washington for the dedication of a memorial to global victory six decades ago, their achievements and sacrifice were further recalled in an exhibit of photographs from the archives of The Associated Press.  Memories of World War II opened May 24, 2004 to the public at Washington's Union Station, a week before the National World War II Memorial was ceremonially christened on the Mall.
    
The AP exhibit is a spectrum of 126 photos from all theaters of the war and the home front, ranging from AP photographer Joe Rosenthal's classic Iwo Jima flag raising in 1945 to scores of pictures not seen in decades.
   
 "As far as we know, all of the pictures were transmitted at some time on AP wires, but some probably have not been touched since the war," said Charles Zoeller, curator of the exhibit and an accompanying book, and chief of AP's vast photo library.

Courtesy of The Associated Press

Tour Development by Smith Kramer Fine Art Services, Kansas City, Missouri

Cruisin' Cuisine: Drive Ins of Sioux Falls

Drive-in restaurants had their beginning in 1921 in Dallas, TX at a little café called The Pig Stand where servers began hopping onto the running boards of cars coming into the parking lot. These servers eventually became known as "car hops," and the era of the drive-in restaurant with car hops providing curb-side service was born.

Cruisin' Cuisine takes a nostalgic look at several early drive-ins of Sioux Falls, including The Barrell, Bob's, The Cottage, Cutler's, Dal-Ray, Herbert's, Kirk's, Lee's, Ray's, and Rickey's. Relive times gone by with music, images, and artifacts from these city hot spots. Opens October 16th, 2008

American Indian Beadwork

American Indian beadwork was and is today a major art form in Indian culture. Artistic expression was a central part of everyday tribal life, as Indians decorated themselves, their homes, and their possessions.  Before their contact with Europeans, American Indians made their beads from stones, shells, teeth, animal bones, deer hooves, and seeds.  By the late 1700s and early 1800s, Venetian glass beads had become a form of currency between European fur traders and Indian tribes all across North America.  Tribes found these beads appealing, colorful, and much easier to use than porcupine quills.

The exhibit will highlight beadwork from many different North American Indian tribes including Iroquois, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Woodland, Ojibwa, and Lakota.  It will feature both historical and contemporary objects as well as the different techniques the American Indians used in creating their beadwork designs. Some of the artifacts that will be on display are a shirt and leggings worn by Chief Spotted Tail, an 1870s war shirt, bandolier bags, purses, and beaded moccasins.

The Legacy of Silver

When the first colonists arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 they were looking for silver, along with other precious metals. The value of silver was so great that those adventurers were willing to travel across an ocean to find it. Silver had long been desirable in Europe as a decorative way to display wealth, but the American colonists would have to import the majority of their silver for another 150 years, until the discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1857 in Nevada. This new source of material, combined with the development of electroplated silver in the 1840s, fueled the rise of some of America's most famous silver manufacturers, including Tiffany & Co., Roger Bros., and Reed & Barton. Click Here for more Information.

The Art of Architecture: Selections From the Perkins, McWayne & McLaughlin Collection

In 1918 Robert A. Perkins and Albert McWayne formed Perkins & McWayne, Architects and Engineers. For the next 36 years the firm, with Perkins as primary architect and McWayne as primary engineer, designed structures to house the activities of business, education, government, communities and private individuals. Their

buildings can be found throughout the state of South Dakota, but also in southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa. When Perkins retired from practice in 1954, Earl McLaughlin took over as principal architect, and the firm continued as McWayne & McLaughlin until 1976. Click Here for more Information.

Let's Get Hitched: The Road To Matrimony

We'll be hearing wedding bells this fall at the Old Courthouse Museum.  On October 25th, Let’s Get Hitched! The Road to Matrimony will open with a reception from 5-7 p.m.  Encompassing over 100 years of bridal gowns as well as wedding invitations, marriage certificates, photographs, and other objects, the exhibit will trace the development of the traditional white wedding we are familiar with today.  Topics will include floral decoration, jewelry, bridesmaids and groomsmen, bridal showers, receptions, and the cake.  You may even be able to help us identify some of our local "mystery" brides!  Come down to the Museum and help us celebrate the story of matrimony in the Midwest. Click Here for more info.

Fur Trade: Top Hats, Beads, and Buffalo Hides

This exhibit examines how trappers, traders and companies from England, France, Spain, and America, and even the national governments of those countries, became involved in the business of supplying furs to Europe and America, specifically through trade with the native people who lived in the Upper Missouri River Valley in present-day South Dakota. Over approximately 200 years (c. 1660-1860), the fur trade spread and grew from its focus on beaver in Canada south into the Great Plains, where for its last 30 years it centered on buffalo hides. In those two centuries, French and British explorers from Canada, French and Spanish from the Louisiana colony, and American businessmen from the east slowly established posts and forts in the Dakotas. From these stations the new arrivals quickly attempted to establish relations with the native Indian inhabitants, who had engaged in inter-tribal trade for generations.

All participants on both sides filled important and diverse roles in the complex system of trade, but the main transaction remained a relatively simple one: the exchange of beaver, raccoon, fox, mink, muskrat, deer, bear, and buffalo skins for “trade goods” including beads, ribbons, metal tools, mirrors, knives, shells, kettles, and alcohol. 

Although basic in essence, the fur trade provided many dangerous challenges: transportation of goods and furs, weather, disease, competition, and the maintenance of good tribal relations. In the end, the fur trade was an international business on a grand scale, but beyond the profits made, the most important result of the trade during these years was communication. Two very different cultures found common ground without giving up their own identities or engaging in warfare. Click Here for more info.