February First Fridays: Conversations from UMN's Archives and Special Collections
First Fridays: Sensory Experiences
Join us for the 2025-2026 season of First Fridays as we explore the things you can see, hear, touch, taste or smell in Archives and Special Collections. This first program in the First Fridays season features presentations from the University of Minnesota Archives and Archival Processing.
Light lunch at 11:30 a.m. Presentations begin at noon. A tour of the archival caverns will take place after the event concludes. ASL interpreters will be present for all First Fridays events.
Registration will open Jan. 2026
Our Ancestors Held This: Intergenerational Memory Transmission through Queer Archival Touch
Presented by Aiden Bettine, Curator, Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies
The Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies holds thousands of objects and millions of sheets of paper that LGBTQ people have made, held, written on, drawn on, worn, flown, treasured, and gifted to the community. The archival materials in Tretter are meant to be touched and held by younger generations of queer and trans people to transmit the knowledge of a deep rooted and robust community history. To touch is to make an underrepresented past tangible. This presentation will share the lessons we can learn when we enable touch in the Tretter Collection.
Instructions on Taste and Smell: Sensory Experience in the Premodern World
Presented by Marguerite Ragnow, Curator, James Ford Bell Library/Special Collections and Rare Books, and Anne Good, Assistant Curator, James Ford Bell Library
Exotic pineapples that smell like strawberries that taste like wine that mean hospitality and abundance – how did the experience of tasting and smelling intertwine and create meaning in the early modern world? This presentation will draw on travel narratives, recipes books, and merchant accounts, to consider ways that paying attention to the senses enriches our understanding of the past.
About
First Fridays is a series of intellectually stimulating conversations from the Archives and Special Collections at the University of Minnesota Libraries. First Fridays is made possible by a generous gift from Governor Elmer L. Andersen and Mrs. Eleanor Andersen in honor of former University Librarian Dr. Edward B. Stanford.
Event details
What: First Fridays: Our Ancestors Held This: Intergenerational Memory Transmission through Queer Archival Touch and Instructions on Taste and Smell: Sensory Experience in the Premodern World
When: Friday, Feb. 6, 2026 | Lunch at 11:30 a.m. | Presentations begin at noon
Where: Elmer L. Andersen Library, room 120 and ONLINE | Parking and directions
