MEME FORENSICS AND THE EVIDENCE TEST

This is the practical page. It is for the next strange photograph, map or
caption that arrives at two in the morning.

1. SAVE THE IMAGE.

Keep the file, the URL and the date you found it. Memes change. Captions
change. The first version may be more useful than the version being shared.

2. IGNORE THE CAPTION.

Describe what is visibly present before accepting what somebody says it is.
Is it a building, a ruin, a street, an exposition photograph, a map or an
AI-enhanced crop?

3. IDENTIFY THE OBJECT.

Look for distinctive windows, towers, street corners, rooflines, signs,
landmarks and neighboring buildings. Reverse-image search is a lead, not a
final authority. Try several crops and search the visible words.

4. FIND THE ORIGINAL.

Use Library of Congress, National Archives, state historical societies, city
archives, university collections, museum databases, David Rumsey, Sanborn
maps and historic newspaper archives. Read the catalog description, not just
the image preview.

5. CHECK THE DATE.

An image made in 1893 is evidence about 1893. It is not automatically
evidence about 1850 or 1920. Check whether the date refers to the photograph,
the building, the collection or a later scan.

6. CHECK THE CROP.

Labels may be removed. Neighboring buildings may identify the location.
Street signs, shadows, construction equipment and horizon lines can change
the interpretation.

7. FOLLOW THE PAPERWORK.

Search contemporary newspapers, city directories, property records, permits,
engineering reports, architectural journals, Sanborn fire insurance maps,
census material and later preservation surveys.

8. SEPARATE OBSERVATION FROM EXPLANATION.

A window below today's grade is an observation. "A mud flood buried the
city" is an explanation. The explanation needs its own evidence.

9. COMPARE INDEPENDENT SOURCES.

One website copying one caption is one source. An architect's drawing, a
newspaper account, a city report and a photograph from a separate collection
are independent lines of evidence.

10. RECORD WHAT REMAINS UNCERTAIN.

Sometimes the building cannot be identified. Sometimes the photograph's date
is unknown. Sometimes the popular explanation is wrong but the best answer is
still provisional. Uncertainty is a result, not a failure.

THE EVIDENCE TEST

An anomaly is not evidence for every explanation that could be attached to
it. A real old map proves a mapmaker used a word. A real building proves a
building existed. A real regrade proves the ground changed. The specific
claim connecting those facts needs a separate chain.

Never let the meme tell you what the evidence is before you look at the
evidence.

STARTING COLLECTIONS:

Library of Congress Maps and Geography
https://www.loc.gov/maps/

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/

David Rumsey Map Collection
https://www.davidrumsey.com/

National Archives Catalog
https://catalog.archives.gov/