W. H. Over Museum

Founded in 1883 on the University of South Dakota campus, the W. H. Over Museum is the oldest museum in South Dakota and holds more than 80,000 objects on the natural and cultural history of South Dakota and the Northern Plains. After an 1893 fire destroyed much of its early collection, the museum was rebuilt through scientific collecting and the work of William Henry Over, curator from 1927 to 1948, whose fieldwork and scholarship shaped its identity. Renamed for him in 1949, the museum later survived the loss of state funding and now continues as an independent nonprofit with exhibits spanning fossils, wildlife, Lakota life, homesteading, and regional history.

Vermillion, South Dakota · United States