Granfalloon

Note: I wrote this for a course at Drexel University titled Introduction to Archives I, which I completed as of December 2018. A constant and potentially endless discussion among various archival and historical professionals is that of determining the authenticity of records and what happens if that authenticity is questioned or totally compromised. First of all, defining what makes a record or material “authentic” is its own ongoing debate that deserves some exploration, and even when a unanimous definition is attained, we then begin the argument of how best to present and preserve that sense of reliability. Some researchers such as Heather MacNeil and Bonnie Mak fear that archivists are saddled with too much responsibility in terms of keeping perfectly accurate, untainted records, and Rodney G.S. Carter echoes that fear: “Archives are believed to be arbitrators of truth, even if the records themselves are not truthful” (Carter, 2007). Others, such as Paul Marsden, David Bearman,