Our Mission

We strive to give the public greater access to a more complete and nuanced understanding of Iraqi history. To that end, our mission is threefold: to maintain and grow our open access digital archive of primary and secondary source materials of Iraqi history, to make historical sources in the public domain more accessible, and to produce educational resources.

Our archive is comprised primarily of sources that are in the public domain, partly because there are copyright restrictions on many historical sources, like newspaper articles and photographs; partly because there are many, excellent historical sources already available to the public that need only be collected, centralized, and curated; and partly because we believe the public domain is an integral aspect of our collective memory. While so many important historical documents are out of reach for the vast majority, locked away in archives or hidden behind paywalls; a great many are available, scattered across the internet. Thus, one of our tasks is to gathered as many of those sources as possible, organized them, and make them as available as possible within the constraints of copyright law. We also produce original primary and secondary sources, such as oral histories, essays, and digital exhibits. Overall, our aim is to provide a one-stop learning environment for students, scholars, and citizens.

Collections