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Digital Exhibit Captions and Image Care

By TFOUPublished April 30, 2026Updated June 18, 2026

Content type

Wiki explainer

Primary use

Use this page to compare source lanes, place anchors, and wording limits before repeating a historical claim as settled.

What this page adds

It should add source-aware context, place anchors, wording limits, and a clearer next step than a raw claim or isolated source link can provide.

Evidence level

Starter

Claim status

Open

You should leave with a narrower question, a clearer place context, and a better sense of what the current source trail can support.

Editorial StandardsSource ReviewSafe SharingCorrections Log

Overview

Images can make the site feel richer, but captions must keep evidence boundaries visible. A logo, illustration, field photo, map crop, or archival image should say what it is, where it came from, what rights apply, and what it does not prove.

What this page adds

  • It turns a topic, place, or naming question into a source-led learning page instead of leaving it as a vague claim or isolated citation.
  • It separates what the current record can support from what still needs comparison, correction, or stronger evidence.
  • It gives readers a next-step research path instead of pretending the page is the last word.

What this helps you learn

  • Decorative artwork should be labeled as artwork, not evidence.
  • Field photos need place, date, source, and permission status.
  • Map images need title, creator, date, repository, and scale context.
  • Archival images need citation details and careful language around people and sensitive sites.

Careful claims

  • Do not use images of sacred, funerary, private, or living-person material without review.
  • Do not imply a generated or decorative image is a historical reconstruction.
  • Do not use a caption as a substitute for a source citation.

Research path

  • Write captions in the pattern: what it is, source trail, why it appears here, and limits.
  • Add alt text that names function and content without overclaiming.
  • Send sensitive imagery to owner review before public use.

Reader quality check

  • Can you name the exact place, period, institution, or source type this page is using?
  • Can you separate a direct source detail from an interpretation or community-memory reading?
  • Can you identify which sentence would need a Source Table, Place Packet, or Claim Review Card before reuse?
  • Can you explain what would change the wording: a new source, a contradiction, a boundary change, a name variant, or a privacy concern?

Before reusing this page

  • Copy the claim only with its evidence label, place context, and uncertainty note.
  • Check whether the page is explaining a source, a memory lane, an interpretation, or a working hypothesis.
  • Use Source Review before turning the page into stronger identity, ancestry, legal-status, descent, DNA, membership, or Nation-language wording.
  • Use Community Notes or Fact Check if a missing source, changed boundary, name variation, or contradiction would alter the public wording.

What remains open

This starter should be treated as a working research surface. Dates, naming, family continuity, identity-adjacent conclusions, and disputed interpretation may still need Source Review, Fact Check, Community Notes, or stronger corroboration.

Evidence note: This starter entry is educational. Add sources, dates, maps, Community Notes, and Fact Checks as research develops.

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