Friday, December 4, 2015

International embarrassment

Prior posts established, beyond any doubt, that the AHS is misrepresenting its history. How this happened is not yet known. However, if it was a mistake, it was not an easy mistake to make. The world knows the truth. Libraries as far away as Australia have it correct. They know when the AHS was founded, what it was called when founded, and how and when the name was changed over the years.

The documents proving the faulty history are not limited to those cited in prior posts. There are many others. For example, Eleanor Sloane correctly documented the 75th anniversary of the AHS (then still the Arizona Pioneers’ Historical Society) in 1959.

Given the large body of accurate material documenting its history, how could the AHS get it wrong, especially when it once had it right? Changing the founding date required extraordinary incompetence or unbridled mischief.

The history of the AHS will have to be corrected. There is simply too much evidence of the error or fraud to suppress. The sooner the correction, the better it will be for the state of Arizona. However, so much erroneous material has been published and distributed that it can never all be retracted. The history of the historical society with the fake history will forever be a part of Arizona’s history.

References:
Record ID:  35008033 (Libraries Australia Authorities)
Notes: The Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society was founded in 1884 as the Society of Arizona Pioneers. Changed its name in 1897 to Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society and changed again in 1971 to Arizona Historical Society.
Local system number: 000000008103
                                    abv00018039
Cataloguing source: ANL eng
Authentication code: kin
www.la.gov.au/anbd.aut-an35008033

Sloan. Eleanor B., Seventy-Five Years of the Arizona Pioneers' Historical Society, 1884-1959, Arizona and the West, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring, 1959), pp. 66-70, Published by: Journal of the Southwest. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40166913, Page Count: 7





6 comments:

  1. Museum directors like all museum staff have to live a professional life beyond reproach,. How can you accept artifact and archival donations as well as dispense history to the public if you can't even tell the truth of your own agencies history. Pathetic.

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  2. This statement of the 1864 date is on every source that uses the AHS name. The AHS wants to let everyone know about the "fake" early date. Who are they trying to impress? And why?

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  3. Did the AHS Board of Directors know about the "new date", if they didn't why? And you would think they would know this important information. After all they are the Board members. Guess it was a shock to them when they found out.
    Just like it was a shock to them when they found out about building a new museum at the infamous Rio Nuevo. Or that the agency was taking over a Mineral Museum in Phoenix. They just never get to vote on anything important.

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    1. Maybe they can someday vote on something really important? Like getting rid of Ann Woosley. This is a director who makes $120,000 for not doing a lot. And getting the agency involved in projects like Rio Nuevo or taking over a Mineral Museum for no good reason. And comes up with bogus dates for the founding of the agency founding.

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  4. You would think that every new member of the Arizona Historical Society as well as the current board members would have a copy of Sonnichsen's book.There should be a few copies in storage. If not they should buy some up and keep them for new members. They, of all people should know their OWN history.

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  5. There are many copies of Sonnichsen's book published by the AHS "Pioneer Heritage" available at Amazon Books. Though I bet there are some still available in storage at AHS. The copies at Amazon Books start at $6.44 a copy. I would hope that there is some money available in the AHS budget to buy some for the Board members. Maybe a few dollars from Woosley's own salary?

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