The Authentic History Center

The Authentic History Center is comprised of images of artifacts and historic sounds from American popular culture. Just as the word "authentic" has various meanings, The AHC varies in function. On one level, it is intended to be an educational tool to teach students of history that the everyday objects in their lives often have genuine (authentic) historical value and can sometimes reflect the social consciousness of the era in which they were produced. "Authentic" can also be defined as conforming to fact, and therefore worthy of trust, reliance, or belief. To meet this definition by presenting an authentic interpretation of American history is the ultimate goal of the site, a goal that will take many years to achieve. But the process has begun. In some sections, you'll see that the collection has been analyzed and the results presented in essay form with a specific interpretive message. This has only been done when I am comfortable that the collection is large enough to be considered an authentic representation of the sources produced. More of these sections are being added all the time. The AHC also serves as a digital archive. A large audio collection of speeches and news broadcasts are presented for students to experience a level of authenticity apart from that of a written source only. The digital archive also serves as a repository of sources collected for a certain time period or event "thus far". The acquisition of sources is a time-consuming and expensive process. It's often a monumental task just to discover what artifacts exist, let alone locate and acquire them. As the collection grows, new images and sounds are added to the digital archive. I do not claim that these sections are exhaustive or even a fair representation of all the sources that were produced. Yet these sources have individual value, and so they are presented without comment for students of history to study. The AHC is an ambitious work-in-progress and always will be. As the collection grows, so too does my own understanding of American history. ~Michael Barnes

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