Located in nearly every town and city and serving their communities with a high degree of public trust, history museums, historical societies, and related organizations are uniquely positioned to support a thriving democracy. History organizations do so by advancing essential historical knowledge and skills—and by promoting civic participation, fostering feelings of belonging, bridging divides, amplifying community voices, and addressing contemporary challenges.
Despite the early efforts of some history organizations, our sector has remained a largely untapped partner in strengthening democracy and civic culture. Now, more than ever, there is an urgent need to leverage the vital role the history community plays in democracy and civic life and expand its impact. In response to that need, AASLH’s History & Democracy Initiative (HDI) offers inspiration, guidance, and connection from within and beyond the history field to help repair and fortify American civic culture.
Specifically, HDI aims to . . .
- Inspire history practitioners fieldwide to position their organizations as essential allies in promoting civic practice, such as collaborative problem-solving, critical thinking, and tying past and present.
- Guide history organizations with concrete resources and tools to better integrate the principles and purpose of democracy into their work.
- Connect the history sector to the larger democracy ecosystem by developing cross-field partnerships and programming that support a robust civic culture.
Questions? Contact Madeleine Rosenberg at [email protected].
The History & Democracy Initiative is supported by our founding partner, the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
The History & Democracy Initiative (HDI) offers a conceptual framework and programmatic portfolio for uplifting the history sector’s role in furthering robust public participation and representation in American civic life. Our work includes innovative programming, strategic collaborations, and original research to help history organizations further their contributions to rebuilding America’s civic culture from the ground up.
In the years to come, we will introduce new offerings as part of HDI, but many existing AASLH efforts already align with the initiative’s goals. These include:
Programs
- Reframing History: Rooted in rigorous original research, this 2022 initiative—through a report, toolkit, and programming—provides specific, flexible strategies to address public misperceptions about history, overcome major communication challenges, build a more widely shared understanding of the importance of learning from the past, and explain why complete and accurate history is important for everyone, especially in a functioning democracy.
- National Census of History Organizations: A first-of-its-kind effort to comprehensively research the size and scope of the U.S. history community, this 2022 project defined fundamental characteristics of our field, assessed major strengths and weaknesses, and identified areas for improved practice and further research. Its findings show the unique position of the history sector to support community-based civic practice.
- Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations (STEPS): The only nationwide assessment program designed specifically for small- to mid-sized history organizations, STEPS helps institutions strengthens their roles as vital and inclusive community forums by reviewing their policies and practices and benchmarking them against national standards.
Partnerships
- Free training courses: The outsized role Wikipedia plays in the information environment makes the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of the site’s historical content hugely important. AASLH has worked with Wiki Education (a Wikimedia affiliate) to offer a free online course on best practices in contributing evidence-based, comprehensive information to Wikipedia. This project is expected to help millions of readers access well-sourced information and better understand history’s value.
- Community conversations: This project with NxtLevel, an initiative dedicated to furthering DEI efforts, involves helping small to mid-sized history organizations host community conversations about how the public remembers its past and envisions its future. The series centers history organizations as trusted conveners while creating a set of qualitative data that can inform the work of foundations, policymakers, and others. The pilot will hopefully inform a possible scalable initiative at history organizations nationwide.
May 27–28: History & Democracy Virtual Summit, a two-day virtual convening that will offer practitioners inspiration, case studies, and connections from within and beyond the history sector to enhance organizational capacity to support democracy.
June 24: “Strengthening History Communication,” a virtual workshop highlighting key tools and takeaways from our Reframing History initiative that help build a wider understanding of the value of history and history organizations.
September 16–19: AASLH is holding a Joint Conference with the National Council on Public History in Providence, Rhode Island, that will feature multiple sessions related to the intersection between history work, democracy, and civics.
Additional AASLH Resources
- “Museums as Polling Sites,” Technical Leaflet (2020)
- AASLH Civic Education and Engagement Resource Kit
Relevant Research
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences research, “Habits of Heart and Mind: How to Fortify Civic Culture” (2025)
- Democracy Narrative Alliance’s research brief, “How To Talk about Democracy: What We Know (and Don’t Know)” (2026)
- More in Common report: “Defusing the History Wars: Finding Common Ground in Teaching America’s National Story” (2022)
- Nationhood Lab report: “The Story of America: A Rebooted Civic National Narrative” (2025)
- Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) report: “How to Talk Bridge-y 2.0: Lessons and Takeaways from PACE’s 2025–2026 Civic Language Perception Project” (2026)
Related organizations and initiatives
- iCivics oversees Civic Learning Week, an annual opportunity for schools and organizations of all kind to promote civic learning
- Educating for American Democracy provides guidance and frameworks to transform teaching of history and civics to meet the needs contemporary K–12 needs
- Facing History and Ourselves offers civic education resources
- Made By Us: focused on engaging younger generations in history and civics; coordinates annual Civic Season between Juneteenth and July 4 to highlight public participation in civics, especially at cultural organizations
- The Hoover Institution’s Center for Revitalizing American Institutions: recently launched an online civic self-assessment tool called the Civic Profile
There are several history museums and related institutions at the forefront of the intersection between history and democracy that regularly provide resources and programming on these topics. These include:
- Heinz History Center’s America 101 program
- Intrepid Museum’s Exploring Civics through Historic Spaces toolkit
- Japanese American National Museum’s Democracy Center
- Georgia Historical Society
- Lancaster History’s Thaddeus Stevens & Lydia Hamilton Smith Center for History and Democracy
- National Constitution Center
- The New York Historical’s Academy for American Democracy
- Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello
- Virginia Museum of History & Culture’s Civic Connects initiative