Institute for Public History

How history is remembered is critical for knowing ourselves and for understanding our place in the community, the nation, and the world. Through history, we bear witness to the intersections of past, present, and future. Historians interested in "public history" have a special responsibility to interpret history in ways that acknowledge both the failures and the successes of the American experiment. The Institute for Public History, founded in 1996 at The University of Virginia, supports students, scholars, public history organizations, and the general public in their efforts to achieve a more richly textured historical knowledge. It prioritizes projects that illustrate perspectives about the past that have gone unacknowledged, particularly projects which expand beyond the use of written documents to include material culture, oral history, and digital archives. The Institute is dedicated to the wide sharing of historical information beyond the university community.