USD Receives Rare Butler Family Photograph Collection; Exhibition Opens Nov. 24
This gift includes 93 photographs, taken by Henry Clay Butler (1863-1918), a distinguished first pioneer photographer of Vermillion, and his nephew, Frank H. Butler (1871-1963), along with Butler family photographs.
To mark the gift, Archives & Special Collections will present the “Rex Butler Collection of Henry and Frank H. Butler Photographs – An Exhibition,” on view Nov. 24, 2025 – May 12, 2026, in the University Libraries Gallery, First Floor of the I.D. Weeks Library.
Spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the collection brings into focus the people, places and daily life of Vermillion and the Northern Plains—from Main Street to the First Baptist Church, and the town’s first log schoolhouse to river scenes, trains and lower Vermillion. The photographs also range beyond South Dakota to regional landmarks including the Corn Palace in Sioux City, Iowa, and Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.
“The history of a family should be preserved where it happened. I wanted a permanent home that could make this information publicly available, and USD was the only choice for protecting these items,” said Rex Butler, grandson of Frank H. Butler and donor of the collection.
“This really is a once-in-a-career collection donation—the collection you dream exists and hope finds its way to the Archives & Special Collections,” said Sarah Hanson-Pareek, program director of the Digital Imaging Lab and Digital Library and assistant librarian for the University Libraries. “These photographs are invaluable to the people of Vermillion and broader communities as they provide us with views we otherwise would not have. Working with Rex has been a joy; his foresight and vision made this possible.”
The Butler photographs document Vermillion’s growth after the 1881 flood, the rebuilding of Henry Butler’s Main Street studio and gallery, and the evolution of studio portraiture in the region. Many of the images—now available for research—have never been publicly seen.
The collection has been digitized and is available on the Digital Library of South Dakota.
To view the finding aid for the collection, please visit the USD Archives.
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