The NDSU Libraries are set to host a reception for an exhibit titled “Appetite for Education: The Alba Bales House,” Thursday, April 12, from noon to 1 p.m. at the Main Library’s Weber Reading Room, located at 1201 Albrecht Boulevard.

During the event, alumni from the home economics program will tell stories of their experiences and share sample food made from period recipes.

The NDSU Main Library is currently displaying an exhibit about cooking in the home economics program at the Alba Bales House. It includes historic items from three important NDSU collections – the NDSU Archives, the Emily P. Reynolds Historic Costume Collection and the Libraries’ state and federal documents collection. 

For a 60-year period, students in the NDSU home economics program spent four-to-five weeks living in the Alba Bales House. The Practice House, as it was originally known, was built from 1922-23 and was ready for its first residents in fall 1923. It was retitled the Home Management House in 1936 to better reflect its purpose, and finally renamed the Alba Bales House in 1954, in honor of Dean Alba Bales.

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