At Heart of the Plains, our mission is to bring regional history to life in an engaging, educational, and accessible way. To achieve this, we occasionally utilize modern digital tools—including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced photo restoration software—to repair aging media or illustrate historical concepts. While these tools help bridge the gap between the past and present, our highest priority is historical integrity. This policy outlines how we handle, label, and present visual media so our readers can explore history with confidence.
1. Our Core Principles
- Authenticity First: We believe original archival photographs, documents, and artifacts are irreplaceable historical records.
- Zero Fabrication: We do not use AI to create fake historical events, alter historical facts, or misrepresent individuals.
- Full Disclosure: We never present a digitally altered, colorized, or AI-generated image as an unedited primary source.
2. How We Categorize and Label Images
Every image on our website falls into one of three categories and is explicitly labeled:
- Original Archive [ORIGINAL]: An unedited historical photograph or document. It has not been digitally altered, except for standard cropping or minor brightness adjustments to ensure web readability.
- Digitally Restored / Colorized [RESTORED]: An authentic historical image that has been digitally repaired (removing scratches, tears, or stains) or colorized using AI or manual tools. While we do not host the original unedited versions on every page to keep our site layout clean, we maintain the unaltered files in our archives and will gladly share the original source photo upon request.
- AI-Generated Illustration [ILLUSTRATION]: An image created entirely from scratch using AI to depict a scene, era, or object for which no visual record exists. These are strictly used as educational art to provide context, not as historical evidence.
3. Where to Find Labels
You can verify the status of any image on our platform by checking:
- The Image Caption: Located directly beneath the graphic.
- The Image Alt-Text: Accessible via screen readers or by hovering your cursor over the image.
- The Source Metadata: Included in the citations at the bottom of the article.
4. Requesting Original Photos & Feedback
The world of digital archiving is evolving rapidly, and we are committed to absolute transparency. If you would like to request the original, unedited version of a restored photo on our site, or if you have questions about our policy, please contact us at [email protected].