However, if you obtain "copies" of records from the National Archives those copies can be obtained in either paper format (black and white) or digital format (usually color). There may be clues in the color images of records that are not always evident in black and white images.
Do you indicate in your sources whether the image/copy used was black and white or color?
Do you think it is important to make this notation?
If I use a "copy" of a record from the National Archives and didn't view the material myself onsite and obtained it without visiting the facility directly, should I indicate whether the "image" used to make my transcription was a color copy or a black and white copy?
Does it matter?
I think it does, but I've not decided how to handle it.
If you don't think "color" matters, look at this image from a letter in a Civil War pension application. A black and white copy might "hide" the fact that there are two different handwritings (at least) on this document.
My interpretation of something may be different because I used a color copy versus a black and white copy.
We're using this letter in an upcoming issue of Casefile Clues. I'm not certain if I'll have a good way of handling the citation by then, but we're working on it.
I was in our courthouse archives looking up a marriage certificate one day when a gentleman and one of the clerks came in. The gentleman was looking for a plat map of a development. The courthouse had scanned all those plats and gave him a copy, it was black and white, but the gentleman was looking for the original, and when he found it, it was in two colors red lines and black lines. The red lines were changes after the original plat was filed. So your asking for a color scan may be important sometimes.
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