On how and why to verify source material for historical research Historiography 101 On how and why to verify source material for historical research

Historiography The study of written history Methodology of historians in developing history as an academic discipline.

Why? Accuracy Veracity Pride We want to present as much accurate historical information as possible We want people who listen to us to be able to verify that we are saying correct things (don’t assume that every member of the public is uninformed) You should be able to take pride in the amount of work you’ve put into your research – grabbing images off pinterest is not a difficult task, but spending several hours finding out exactly when a certain manuscript was written, or finding out whether you are able to use a particular image as source material for your impression is something you can be proud of!

What to ask? What am I looking at? (text type/source type, content, details) What is the context of this source? (What was happening when this source was created?) Who is the author/creator? What was their motivation in creating this source? What biases are they likely to have had? How will this influence the source? Where were they when they created the source? Does the information in this source match up with what other sources on the same subject say? What points do they agree on? Am I only using this source because it confirms what I already think is true? If so, how do I control for confirmation bias? 3C’s – Content, context, comment BEWARE CONFIRMATION BIAS

Confirmation Bias The tendency to search for and favour information that confirms one’s pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses. Can be quite damaging to good-quality research Always be willing to let a favourite theory go if it’s proved wrong E.G.: “Medieval people never wore pink” has been disproven. A wise person would abandon this line of thought, since we have copious amounts of evidence to show that medieval people did, in fact, wear pink.

How to tell if your source is good A good source should be: Accurate Verifiable Current Reliable Avoid!! Pinterest (more on this shortly) Blog posts (unless the author is an academic or historian of good repute) Single sources of information on a subject (2-3 sources is good, more is better) Using another re-enactor as a source – you have no way of knowing whether what they are doing is correct unless you’ve done the research. Accurate = present information that is generally agreed upon to be correct (e.g. it doesn’t disagree on the major ideas as presented by a number of other sources on the same subject) Verifiable = you should be able to verify the information by cross-referencing with other sources Current = written in or around the time you are researching. So, if you’re researching 12th century Cyprus, you’d be looking mostly for sources written in the 11th to 13th centuries Reliable = for secondary sources – does the author have a good reputation as a historian?

Don’t use Pinterest, please. The wonderful thing about user-driven content on the web is that anyone can post stuff. The terrible thing about user-driven content on the web is that anyone can post stuff. Majority of web users will not have an accurate idea of what period clothing looks like.

The problem with Pinterest… Users upload and tag content – and not always correctly. Sometimes the same dress can be tagged with a variety of different keywords For example, the girl on the right is an actress in a TV show, but her dress shows up in many Pinterest pages as “medieval”, despite the many anachronisms and inaccuracies.

How to trace the source of an image Google image search has a really useful reverse image search tool. Opening it will give you this interface: You can either drag and drop an image, or put its URL in the search box, and it will locate all copies of that image.

Where to look for good sources Manuscripts, period art, period writing Google Scholar Wikipedia References at end of article University Library (if you have access) or State Library Generally, manuscripts, period art, and period writing are good primary sources. For secondary sources, Google Scholar can be quite useful, as can Wikipedia (I know, I know! Hear me out!) At the end of any Wikipedia article will be a list of references – follow these up for more information on the topic.

Useful resources Melisende Psalter – Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1135 Maciejowski Bible (aka Morgan Bible) – c.1250, Northern France British Museum Bodleian Library Aberdeen Bestiary MET museum LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)