OPEN HISTORY ARCHIVE aims at providing a mapping of digital history web experiences.

Far from being exhaustive, it operates through the selection and cataloging of online projects considered interesting because of the research questions that shape their designs, and viceversa. The archive has been conceived as a source and tool for public and digital historians, digital humanities scholars, knowledge designers, history buffs, and all those who are curious about the ways in which we can rethink the communication of history in the Information Age.

The Web has opened up history to new possibilities for sharing data and materials, to new forms of knowledge presentation and visualisation, and to novel narrative formats. Different digital history projects move along these three trajectories, which can overlap. Ranging from online exhibitions to virtual museum tours, from interactive timelines and maps to social media set in the past, they are conceived for online users and are united by the preponderance of visual communication.

OPEN HISTORY ARCHIVE stems from Giorgio Ruggeri's book OPEN HISTORY. Designing the Communication of Historical Knowledge Through the Web, edited by Marius Iršenas and published by VAA Press, 2019. By keeping trace of the development of digital history initiatives on the Web, the portal seeks to implement its collection of websites, its taxonomy and cataloging system also thanks to the contribution of users suggestions and submissions.