Introduction
All documents and materials we have within this site are deemed to be authentic, and though most have been authenticated, there are nonetheless some wherein their provenance cannot be verified as we cannot locate their original source. In those instances where provenance may be in question, we clearly make the disclaimer, and, we seek your help in being able to notify us of any knowledge you have of their origins, or alternatively, can provide evidence as to why they are not authentic (please note - we are looking for factual evidence, not just opinions unless you happen to be a professional document examiner). Regardless, we present it all and encourage you to read through the plethora of materials on this site and draw your own conclusion.
Many of the documents on this site can be easily accessed on the Internet from their original source. There has been a tremendous amount of research effort going into this site, which is offered for free - so if you are accessing this work product, you owe the providers at least a reasonable effort of your own research endeavor before criticizing or posting anywhere the documents contained herein are fake.
This page will explain how we obtained much of our research materials, and, how you can conduct your own research to assist us in verification of authenticity of any documentation contained herein, and, help contribute additional materials that may further our understanding about the factual history of the theme of this site.
Why Much Historic Documentation Cannot be Found on the Internet
The Internet has presented us a new age of instantaneous document access. Because of social media sites, i-reporting and virtually any published document these days being immediately accessible by the Internet, we have come to wrongfully assume the Internet is the repository of all historic documentation, and that all one needs to do is use search engines to uncover historic materials. Although every day millions of documents are finding their way onto the Internet, many have not and may never do so.
There are three primary reasons many millions of historic documents and materials cannot be found by Internet search engines:
Cost and Effort. Over the past two decades, there has been a tremendous effort undertaken to take literally millions of historic documents and make them accessible to the Internet. These documents include original manuscripts, books, journals, newspapers, photographs and other materials in historic archives.To have an historic document accessible on the Internet by a search engine, it must first be scanned using Optical Character Recognition ("OCR") technology and converted to text, then stored on someone's digital database that is connected to the Internet. This technology is available for microfiche, microfilm and actual physical documents that must be manually placed on an optical scanner to do this, and is a significant amount of work. Although a number of companies have undertaken this effort, there is still a lot left to do.
In addition, there is the issue of locating documents. A document of historic interest must first be found, and because many authors or publishing houses are long since gone, retrieval may mean finding it on some dusty library shelf or in a trunk of someone's attic. This becomes particularly an issue when such documents are referenced in other documents that can be found on the Internet.
Thus, despite the massive undertaking in the ongoing effort to make the Internet a repository for historic documentation, there are still entire library archives that have yet to be made available on the Internet.
Copyright Impediments. In 2004, Google began to optically scan books using OCR and announced to the public Google's Library Project. Unfortunately, this and other similar endeavors began to run afoul of copyright laws when copyright owners filed suit. No one has the legal authority to provide any book or news item on the Internet other than the copyright owner, unless that owner has granted permission to someone else or through massive previous access becomes part of the public domain (i.e., images of the Mona Lisa). Even public courts are now claiming that file documentation related to lawsuits hold copyright protection, although most are under some form of freedom of information acts in various countries. This has thwarted many millions of published materials from being accessible to Internet search engines. Fortunately, in 2008, Google settled a lawsuit with the publishing industry and agreed to compensate authors and publishers in exchange for the right to make millions of books available to the public. But many of those that have agreed only allow Google the right to publish a portion of the book with access to the rest requiring the user to purchase the full book. And many more owners of documentation have not entered into agreement to license its copyright to others, and thus, you will not be able to access them (legally) on the Internet.
Lost or Inaccessible. Thousands of newspapers and journal archives are not yet accessible on the Internet, even on their publisher's own websites. Some never retained or lost editions of their papers or journals and thus they may be lost forever, or, have yet to go through the OCR process due to associated costs, particularly if they are, say, a small town newspaper. And of those that have completed the OCR process and have their digitized databases connected to the Internet, they often charge a fee for accessing their database archives, and therefore, their archives may not show up on search engines. In addition, many documents are found on the Internet in the form of a image file, but have yet to go through an OCR process. Therefore, search engines cannot locate many as there is no embedded text that is recognized by the engine. Ultimately, it takes a tremendous amount of research and effort to locate many historical documents, and it's not nearly as simple as "Googling" it.
The good news is that Google News Search, Newspaper Archives and other research engines have been successful in providing tens of millions of articles and books on the Internet, and it is from there that we are able to create this site. But the point is, if you cannot find it on the Internet, you are grossly misinformed if you believe that it means a document does not exist, or never did. And never assume that it means a posted document is necessarily fake just because you cannot find it on a search engine as it may have come out of a personal archive never published on the Internet.
Ways to Verify Provenance and Do Your Own Research
A number of Internet database sources were used to conduct our research, and they are also available to you. Images that have not undergone the OCR process may be harder to find, but if you stay with it, you will find some level of success. If you truly want to become knowledgeable and obtain authentic historic documentation, you may have to do what we did, and purchase access to newspaper and journal archives, or actually purchase the book you believe contains the information you want.
Some of the better search engines for historic archives we have found include:
Old Fulton New York Post Cards
Historical Paintings - I Am a Child
If during your research you discover anything pertinent to this website for either contribution or clarification, please email us at: Historic Archives - Nude Male Swimming