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ABSTRACT
AUTHENTICITY-THE VERIFIABLE CLAIM that an object is what it purports to be-is crucial for the value of an artifact as evidence, cultural object, research source, and object worthy of collecting, curating, and preserving. This essay explores another aspect of authenticity in artifacts, one rooted in subjective experience and less amenable to verification but often equally important for meaningful use of retrospective resources-the ability of an artifact, through its physical presence, to create an experiential and affective response in the researcher. The essay further explores the implications for collectors and special collections librarians of the fact that digital objects can be likened to physical artifacts because they also claim experiential and affective authenticity.
In the most elementary sense, to be authentic is to be what one purports to be: to be what one seems.
In the world of special collections, authenticity is essential. It underlies all the values of the physical artifact both as a cultural object and as a commodity acquired by collectors. The values that depend upon an artifact's authenticity, well articulated by the preservation, special collections, and antiquarian trade communities, include aesthetic value, importance in the history of the medium, age, scarcity, association, monetary value, features of interest, and exhibit value (Elkington, 1992). If an item such as a rare book, a vintage photograph, a manuscript map of Vinland, or any item that claims artifactual value is proven to be inauthentic-to be passing for something that it is not-then it loses much of its value as a research source, an exhibition item, or an object worthy of collecting. Given the importance of authenticity in its objective dimension for the intellectual, cultural, and monetary value of an object, these values are generally accessible to various technical and historical forensic examinations that support one or more claims to authenticity, from documentary evidence of provenance to analyses of chemical composition.
But in the realm of special collections, objects can be many things to many people. What a single artifact seems to be can be understood not only with traditional forensic tools for objective measurements but also by close examination of more subjective aspects of that item-its context, its implicit history as evinced by its explicit appearance, and its uncanny ability to carry, through its...