TY - JOUR T1 - On Evidence JF - Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians SP - 433 LP - 435 DO - 10.1525/jsah.2017.76.4.433 VL - 76 IS - 4 AU - Morton, Patricia A. Y1 - 2017/12/01 UR - http://jsah.ucpress.edu/content/76/4/433.abstract N2 - What is evidence in architectural history today? How has our definition of evidence changed as new archives, methods of research, and areas of scholarship have emerged? How have digital media altered what we consider evidence and the ways we employ it for scholarship? The word evidence can refer to an outward sign or indication, or it can refer to something that furnishes proof, that has legal status in determining the truth of a matter. These disparate concepts of evidence inform our scholarly practices, yet we often fail to reflect on the implications of linking evidence to form or to truth.This issue contains four Field Notes that appraise the status of evidence in architectural history. The authors approach evidence from diverse positions and perspectives, considering the digital humanities, race, narrative, and photography. They ask questions about what we define as evidence, how and where we find evidence, how we give meaning to evidence, and what we consider the truth about evidence. Rather than a comprehensive survey of evidence in architectural history, these essays represent a cross section of the ways the field has expanded into new areas, raising new questions about the premises of the discipline.What we define as evidence has greatly expanded in recent decades, and this expansion has brought new methods and problems to architectural history. Evidence has no fixed definition in architectural history; definitions have shifted over time and have rarely produced consensus among historians.1 Evidence can disrupt previous knowledge about the field as it enables new insights into a historical problem or debunks a previously accepted narrative. Evidence is not neutral. It plays a crucial role in arbitrating between historical problems and their analysis, and the architectural historian takes the role of arbiter of truth. In an essay on architecture as evidence, Andrew Ballantyne … ER -