For release Dec. 24, 2003

For more information contact Jeff Mammenga, 773-6000

Medicine, woman suffrage highlighted in State Historical Society magazine

PIERRE—Illness in the era before modern medicine and the long struggle of women to win the right to vote are examined in articles in the Fall 2003 issue of South Dakota History, the quarterly magazine of the South Dakota State Historical Society.

            In her article, “In the Midst of Life We Are in Death”:  Medical Care and Mortality in Early Canton,” Paula M. Nelson looks at illness and death customs in one small South Dakota town during the late 19^th century. Particularly poignant are the stories of children who died from diseases that are now easily prevented. Nelson is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville who is currently writing a book on Canton.

            Emma Smith DeVoe was a key figure in the first campaign for the adoption of a woman suffrage amendment to the state constitution in 1890. Those fighting for women’s voting rights continued to look to her leadership until they achieved victory in 1918. DeVoe’s story is told by Jennifer Ross-Nazzal in “Emma Smith DeVoe and the South Dakota Suffrage Campaigns.” Ross-Nazzal works as an oral historian for the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project in Houston and is a Ph.D. candidate in United States history at Washington State University.

            In a special “Historical Musings” feature entitled “`Cast Down Your Buckets Where You Are’:  Professional Historians and Local History,” David B. Danbom considers why many professional academic historians have lost a commitment to doing the history of the places where they live. Danbom is a history professor at North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D.

            Helen Anderson Severson was among the first South Dakota women to die in the line of duty during World War II. Katherine J. Mehrer, a graduate of Northern State University in Aberdeen, profiles the 24-year-old Severson’s brief career as a pilot in “Dakota Images.”

            South Dakota History is a benefit of membership in the South Dakota State Historical Society. Memberships and individual copies of the magazine may be purchased from the society at 900 Governors Drive, Pierre, SD 57501-2217; telephone, (605) 773-3458; e-mail, sdshs@state.sd.us.

            The State Historical Society, headquartered at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center, is an office of the Department of Tourism and State Development.

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