World Historical Gazetteer

Access the World Historical Gazetteer at https://whgazetteer.org/

The World Historical Gazetteer (WHG) is a platform for open linked historical place data that is designed to foster understanding of place history and to improve discovery by connecting information about places across time and language. 

The WHG, an open source and open content project, has been in development for seven years. Version 3 launched this month. WHG visitors can search across more than 2 million place records and browse over 70 published datasets and collections including contributions from Pleiades. Global and temporally referenced place information in the WHG index spans human history from the Bronze Age to the twenty-first century and includes world regions, countries and provinces, settlements, buildings, and even undersea locations.  Contributors represent disciplines across the humanities and social sciences.

For version 3, all maps have been significantly upgraded and now include a time slider and sequence player. Improved search functionality includes more information returned per result and a spatial filter on results.  Enhanced presentation and metadata for published datasets and collections allows users to contextualize publications by uploading an image and a descriptive essay.  A complete design makeover permits users to see the physical geographic context of a place including ecoregions, watersheds, and rivers. Version 3 also includes improved file upload validation and error reporting, solidified API endpoints, and improved download options.  It has a single page dashboard and a single navigable documentation section with more guides and tutorials.

The guiding principle of the WHG is that any place is a locale that may be associated with multiple names, locations, and characteristics.  Therefore, no record in the WHG index is singular or ultimately authoritative.  Instead, it concatenates all information from any dataset that any contributor has chosen to link to an existing entry.  For example, the WHG entry for Lebda (PID 6459662) on the Libyan coast links eight sources of information. That includes the Pleiades entry for Neapolis/Lepcis Magna, with a chronological span of 750 BCE to 640 CE, as well as an entry from the Historical Conflict Event Database that connects the city to a battle that occurred there in 238 BCE.  Future contributors may add additional links that enrich this entry even further.

They would begin doing so by registering as users, which would permit them to use tools in the Gazetteer Workbench to augment and publish historical place data.  They would be able to submit individual datasets, multiple interconnected datasets, or place collections. The WHG also includes resources and tools that allow teachers to encourage students to explore history through place names using sample lesson plans or to let them map their own collection of places.

We are eager to expand the place information indexed in the WHG and to enrich the size and diversity of the community associated with the project.  We encourage visitors to submit datasets, build collections, assist with data linking, bring the WHG into classrooms and workshops, and use our API. In the coming months, we will convene user meetings and populate governance boards. Please reach out if you are interested in collaborating or learning more.