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The Art of Historical Telling

It is my belief that much of history has been rewritten to benefit the dominant culture of the time. When researching historical facts and stories, I find it imperative to find multiple sources for information about a person or event. Primary sources are my favorite, but even primary sources are biased and limited, but they offer the emotion and personal account that is often lacking in historical documents.

 
When sources conflict, my story is even better! If telling first person, I select the version that is my favorite or I feel is the most historical. When telling third person, I am able to present various sides of the story which makes for a very interesting collection of facts allowing the audience to decide what they wish to believe.
 
The art of telling historical tales comes with choosing how to group a collection of stories. A theme can be chosen to tie stories together as I have done for Stories of Kosciusko County. I struggled to find a theme for the topic is vast; there are many stories of Kosciusko County. Choosing how wars have affected the county allows me to create a concert of flexible stories that take me chronologically through the wars. I am then able to create other concerts based on other themes such as Spooky Stories of Kosciusko County.  
 
Emma Edmonds, a Civil War Spy was difficult to tell since there were so many stories and I wanted to tell them all first person. I was worried about leaving out important facts or making mistakes as I told. Beginning the storyline when Emma had typhoid fever allowed me, the teller, to be less exact as Emma had a reason for being confused and can easily correct mistakes by blaming the fever. Knowing how to group stories and present them correctly while allowing for emotion and personal accounts is the art of historical telling.
 
Carol Knarr is the resident storyteller for Kosciusko County Visitors Bureau, Warsaw, Indiana. Contact Carol through www.carolknarr.com.