LAB-SF-04 / Teacher preparation
Facsimile and copy-chain evidence
What can change between an object, painted copy, printed facsimile, scan, and screen?
Modern classroom adaptation. Part 1 uses a new geometric control sheet; Part 2 examines a documented facsimile chain. It does not presume an error is present or that two historical images match. The 1902 Nuttall edition is a facsimile of commissioned artwork, not a photograph of the Indigenous original.
These protocols have not been physically or classroom tested. Pilot the actual materials and chosen transfer method before teaching. Use the stated fallback if its conditions cannot be met.
Before teaching
Choose actual school-approved products; read current labels/SDS and school requirements.
Pilot the chosen hands-on method and document real failures, quantities, timings, drying/release and accessibility.
Verify equipment, supervision, handling, waste and incident procedures.
Apply lab-specific fallback whenever procurement, source visibility or safe-transfer conditions cannot be met.
Lab-specific review
Do not compare different scenes as a matched pair or mistake viewer frame number for manuscript page number.
Record automatic enhancement as on/off/unknown; no claim of uncalibrated color accuracy.
The Internet Archive publisher-field discrepancy must be checked against the title page/institutional catalogue; the 1902 edition is associated with Peabody Museum, Harvard.
Teacher preparation
Preparation allowance: 20–30 minutes to check links, select historical materials, test the printer, and prepare the contemporary control. The lab is designed to succeed as a version-identification activity even when no close historical scene match is available.
Make the 10 cm scale and four 2 × 2 cm patches measurable and leave a clear margin. Test whether the machine applies automatic scaling. Record “unknown” when an automatic image setting cannot be established. Do not modify a historical image to create an apparent error.
For historical comparison, verify the same scene in the British Museum view and the 1902 facsimile before asking students to compare specific details. A scan's frame count is not the manuscript's page numbering. If the match cannot be established, use catalogue/edition metadata and page sequences; do not substitute two similar-looking scenes.
The 1902 edition's Harvard publication information should be checked against the title page or reliable record when explaining the “Howard” metadata discrepancy. Do not teach the typo as a property of the original manuscript. Keep physical-original, printed-facsimile, scan, and display distinct.
A class without devices can use a projected, teacher-created control set. Students need not surrender personal phones or appear in photographs. An image with restricted reuse can be viewed through the institution's site and analyzed in writing; the exercise need not publish a screenshot.
Schedule and equipment queues
One 50-minute session: 7 control construction +7 reproduction +8 comparison +8 historical chain +8 matched-scene or metadata comparison +12 conclusion/cleanup. These are grouped stage allowances across the current nine steps.
Alternative material plans
Use the accessible alternatives and fallback instructions in the student procedure.
Editorial corrections
The current student procedure is the teaching baseline.
Safety and stop conditions
Read these controls with the teacher before handling materials. Chemical etching is historical context only; the practical intaglio activity uses drypoint without mordants.
Controls
Use pre-cut board and paper; any craft knife or guillotine is teacher-only, according to school policy.
Use rounded scissors if students need a trimming step, and a capped pen or smooth plastic spoon rather than a sharp scoring tool.
Do not boil bark, harvest tree bark, process animal skin, grind minerals, heat indigo–clay mixtures, use solvents, or handle dry pigment powders.
Do not use historic pigments, cinnabar, orpiment, lead colours, unknown earths, or genuine antiquities. No open flame, UV lamp, lasers, acids, or chemical “authenticity tests.”
No eating or drinking at the paint station. Wash hands; wipe spills promptly. Keep wet work away from screens and power supplies.
Use a stable cool LED desk lamp for raking light; do not shine it into eyes. Never fold, wet, rub, scrape, or take a sample from an original manuscript or valued modern artwork.
Record and follow individual allergy, sensory, motor, and vision accommodations. Do not ask pupils to disclose private health information to classmates.
Stop when
Unknown or unsuitable art materials, discomfort, unsafe cutting, damaged tools, or unsafe wet/electrical setup: pause and follow school procedures.
A source feature or matched historical scene is illegible or unverified: stop interpretive claims and use a labeled schematic or metadata exercise.
Trained adult only
Craft knives, guillotines, stock cutting, product selection, source/right checks, and permission-controlled photography.
Excluded activities
Bark boiling or harvesting, skin processing, mineral grinding, heated indigo–clay mixtures, solvents, dry pigment powders, historic toxic pigments, genuine antiquities, flame, UV, lasers, acids, chemical authenticity tests.
Sacred reenactment, unverified translation, automated completion of damaged signs, compulsory personal genealogy/migration/religion disclosure.
Cultural and source review
Specific specialist/practitioner review or permission is needed before claiming cultural endorsement or expanding into community-specific or restricted practice. No paid review, purchase, or spending is imposed as a blanket release gate for these explicitly labeled ordinary classroom adaptations. Do not claim any such consultation has occurred.