The Importance of Historical Accuracy by Eileen O'Finlan

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During the 1990s, I worked as a Museum Assistant at the Massachusetts living history museum, Old Sturbridge Village, while earning my bachelor’s degree in history.  My three year stint in the museum’s Department of Research, Collections, and Library allowed me to hone my skills as I assisted professional research historians and curators.  It also imbued in me the desire for precise historical accuracy after I got an insider’s look at what happens when such accuracy is ignored.

An extremely famous movie director and producer who shall remain nameless, called (or rather had his staff members call) Old Sturbridge Village while he was making a movie set in the same 1830s time period as the museum.  I fielded the first call, sending it on to the appropriate curator.  As time passed, it became the talk of the New England living history museum world as others such as Mystic Seaport, Plimouth Plantation and the like received similar inquiries.  The movie was to be based on an actual event, so with all the phone calls and questions, one would have thought the film company was making every attempt to be as historically accurate as possible.

But something strange happened.  Excitement amongst curators and historians at the various museums quickly grew into frustration.  “Why bother to ask us if they’re only going to do whatever they want anyway?” became a mantra.  It seems that if the answer to a historical accuracy question wasn’t the one hoped for, it was discarded in favor of what the famous director “felt” it should be.

When the movie was finally released, I went to see it with a close friend and research historian.  We attempted not to annoy the people around us by keeping our dragon sighs of despair to a minimum, but we exchanged eye-rolling glances throughout.  While the basis of the story remained true to the actual incident, important reasons behind its occurrence were omitted. Despite the fact that beards were completely out of fashion with American men during that time period, almost every man in the movie had one for the simple reason that the director “felt” they should.  In one important scene a judge wrestling with his conscience enters an ornate Roman Catholic cathedral and prays aloud in Latin.  No and no.  Catholicism was barely tolerated in New England at the time.  There were very few Catholic churches and certainly no grand cathedrals.  Despite the fact that Mass was still celebrated in Latin, people did not offer their personal, anguished prayers in the ceremonial language. 

The list of inaccuracies goes on and on.  There was even a pivotal character who never existed in real life.  That’s fine except for the fact that the movie was touted to be historically accurate to the point where elementary school texts based on it were created to teach this incident in history classes – texts which included the fictitious character.

I understand that most of the movie’s audience probably had no idea that the background history was inaccurate, nor did it spoil their enjoyment of the movie.  Still, whether they knew it or not, they left the theater with several erroneous ideas regarding 1830s New England as well as of an actual event in U.S. history. 

This experience left me with a firm promise to myself that my own historical fiction be meticulously researched and accurately presented.  I am grateful to all the historical fiction authors who do the exacting and often tedious work of disciplined research so their readers can immerse themselves in another time period without the distraction of inane anachronisms.  The reader may never know what the author worked so hard to weave throughout a fantastic story, but that behind-the-scenes work is what makes historical fiction such a rich and delicious treat.  The reader gets a great tale along with some painlessly gained historical knowledge all in one.  What a gift!