Mr. Power’s Letterpress

In the early days of the Institute for Regional Studies, at NDSU (established 1950, the country’s oldest academic studies center for the history of the Great Plains), there were certain faculty members of the AC who demonstrated a truly entrepreneurial spirit, doing wonders with really no appropriated budget. Chief among these was an English prof named Leonard Sackett, a legendary collector of manuscripts. I’ll write more about him another day, but now let me dive into the boxes of what he considered his greatest acquisition: the papers of J. B. Power, acquired from heirs in 1955.