Start with the historical question and the people you want to serve, not with a mapping template. A strong community story map links carefully documented places to photographs, records, and oral histories; explains whose perspective is represented; and remains usable for people on phones, keyboards, and screen readers.
This guide takes a volunteer team from project scope and permissions through recording, mapping, authoring, accessibility review, publication, and long-term care.
What an interactive community history map should do
An interactive story map is a guided historical narrative in which location helps readers understand evidence. It can combine prose, photographs, scanned documents, audio, video, timelines, charts, and an interactive map. The map is not the story by itself: it should answer a question that ordinary pages, an image gallery, or a spreadsheet cannot answer as clearly.
Useful questions include: How did a neighborhood change after a factory opened? Which places shaped residents’ memories of migration? What happened along a river during a particular decade? Which buildings survive, and what do archival records and local voices say about them?
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Bound the project to a manageable area, period, or theme. State whose experiences are included, whose are missing, and what evidence supports each claim. A pin, photograph, or interview is not automatically representative of an entire community.
“The interview process must be transparent, with ongoing participation, consent, and engagement among all parties from the first encounter between interviewer and narrator to the creation of end products.”
Oral History Association, Core Principles (2018 revision)
Plan the story before choosing blocks
Write a one-sentence project brief
Write one sentence that names the audience, subject, place, period, and purpose. For example: “For residents and eighth-grade students, this map explains how the east-side market district changed between 1945 and 1985 through storefront photographs, city records, and interviews with former workers.” If the sentence contains several unrelated themes, narrow it before collecting more material.
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Define the audience and reading conditions
Decide whether the primary audience is local residents, visitors, students, researchers, or a mixed public. That decision affects vocabulary, background explanation, reading length, language versions, privacy settings, and the amount of interpretation you provide. Assume many readers will arrive on a phone and that some will use a keyboard or screen reader.
Choose a narrative path
Sketch the reader’s journey from beginning to end before opening the authoring tool. A practical outline is:
- Opening question: explain what changed, why the place matters, and what the reader will investigate.
- Orientation: show the area, dates, key terms, and limits of the project.
- Evidence sequence: move through places or events in a deliberate order, with source context beside each item.
- Voices and tensions: add oral histories and explain where memories, records, or interpretations differ.
- Ending: state what the evidence supports, what remains uncertain, and where readers can learn more.
Esri guidance recommends identifying the target audience, making a content inventory, and outlining the start-to-finish journey before authoring. Treat that outline as an editorial plan, not as a list of software components.
Inventory evidence, rights, and gaps
Create a spreadsheet or collection-management record before you build the map. One row should represent one photograph, map, document, interview, location, or other item. Keep the original file unchanged and work from a copy when making web versions.
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| Field | What to record | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Identifier | A stable project ID for the item | Lets captions, map pins, transcripts, and files refer to the same object |
| Creator or supplier | Photographer, archive, interview narrator, agency, or donor | Preserves provenance and enables accurate credit |
| Date and place | Creation date or range, original location, and mapped location if different | Prevents an approximate date or relocated collection from being presented as exact |
| Description | What is visible or said, including names and uncertain identifications | Supplies caption and alternative-text material without guessing |
| Rights and restrictions | Copyright status, license, donor terms, privacy limits, and expiry or review date | Determines whether and how the item can be published |
| Story role | Opening evidence, context, counterpoint, location pin, or ending | Keeps the narrative selective instead of turning the map into an unedited archive |
| Preservation location | Repository, storage folder, file name, and backup status | Connects the public story to the durable record |
Mark unknown facts as unknown. Do not infer a person’s identity, an exact address, or a precise date from appearance alone. Record conflicting accounts and explain the basis for your interpretation.
Represent more than one perspective
Choose narrators for relevant experience while seeking diverse voices. One interview or one surviving photograph may be valuable without representing everyone who lived in the area. Consider formal community engagement when the subject involves displacement, trauma, Indigenous or minority histories, contested memorials, or records created by authorities rather than residents.
Obtain informed consent for oral histories
Oral history is a collaborative record, not simply a convenient audio layer. Before recording, explain the project in plain language and document the narrator’s decisions.
Discuss these points before the interview
- The project’s purpose and intended audience.
- Whether the conversation will be audio, video, or both, and how recording works.
- Whether the narrator may review a transcript or recording before release.
- Where the master file, transcript, and consent paperwork will be preserved.
- Who may access the material: the project team, a repository, a school audience, the public, or a restricted group.
- How the interview may be excerpted, translated, captioned, edited, or reused.
- Any time limit, geographic restriction, redaction, pseudonym, or withdrawal provision that applies.
Record consent and related agreements before recording, not as an afterthought. The Oral History Association advises offering narrator review before public release when possible and stresses that public access requires explicit permission. Its practice guidance is not a substitute for legal advice in every jurisdiction; ask the relevant repository or a qualified local adviser to review your forms when rights are complicated.
Prepare an open-ended interview
Research the person, subject, and historical setting first. Use prompts such as “Tell me about the first place you remember working in this district” or “What changed after the road was widened?” Follow up on dates, names, routes, and sensory details without pressuring a narrator to supply an answer they do not know.
First-time interviewers benefit from training. Arrange a quiet location when practical, explain how to pause or stop the session, and allow the narrator to correct a misunderstanding. Treat participants as partners in shaping questions, description, preservation, and access.
Choose audio or video and prepare a recording kit
Select the format according to intended use, budget, team skill, narrator comfort, setup needs, and storage capacity. Audio is often less intrusive and easier to preserve; video can convey gesture, setting, photographs held up during the interview, or demonstrations, but it demands more lighting, storage, privacy review, and captioning work.
| Consideration | Audio | Video |
|---|---|---|
| Best when | The voice and words are the central evidence, or the narrator prefers a low-profile setup | Appearance, gesture, surroundings, or demonstrations add historical meaning |
| Setup | Usually simpler, with fewer placement and lighting decisions | Requires camera position, framing, lighting, and background checks |
| Storage | Smaller files and simpler preservation workflow | Larger masters, derivatives, captions, and potentially more complex backups |
| Accessibility work | Provide a transcript or text alternative | Provide accurate captions plus a transcript or other text alternative |
| Narrator comfort | May feel less performative | May be valuable for some narrators and uncomfortable for others |
Audio equipment principles
The National Park Service recommends a reliable, durable recorder that fits the project’s needs and budget, with visible recording and sound-level indicators and battery or outlet power options. Its guidance discusses 24-bit/96-kHz stereo WAV as an archival-standard target and notes that external microphones usually provide better sound quality and setup flexibility. These are format and selection considerations, not a guarantee that every project needs the highest setting.
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A portable digital audio recorder is an appropriate category for field interviews. Build a kit with the recorder, suitable microphone, headphones, paperwork, spare batteries or power supply, and spare SD cards. Compare devices on cost, recording quality and format, durability, readable controls, power options, and ease of use. No particular model is required for a sound project.
Make a safe copy immediately
After each session, copy the original recording to more than one storage location, ideally in separate physical or organizational locations. Preserve the untouched master. Keep it associated with the transcript, consent or release paperwork, descriptive metadata, and interview context notes. Decide which repository or institution will hold the long-term record and document who is responsible for access decisions.
Prepare locations and map layers
Map only what advances the question
Create a web map with the layers needed to understand the narrative. A layer might show historic buildings, transit routes, flood boundaries, demolished sites, workplaces, or interview locations. Remove layers that merely add visual activity or obscure the evidence.
For every mapped location, record the name, coordinates or mapped position, description, source, date or historical context, and any permissions or restrictions. If a location is sensitive, generalize it, omit it, or restrict access rather than exposing a person’s home, burial site, or vulnerable community place.
Choose a narrative block for a reason
- Map: establishes geography or lets readers inspect a relationship between places.
- Express map: presents a small, curated set of locations without requiring a full GIS workflow.
- Map tour: pairs a sequence of pins with images and descriptions when readers should move place by place.
- Sidecar: keeps scrolling text alongside changing maps or media for a guided explanation.
- Timeline: clarifies sequence when dates matter more than geographic movement.
- Table or chart: makes counts, categories, or comparisons available in a text-friendly form.
An Esri public-history tutorial demonstrates a pattern in which a historical-fatalities map sits beside explanatory text in a sidecar and a feature layer supplies locations for a map tour with images and descriptions. Use that pattern when it fits your evidence; do not assume its subject, visual style, or interface is right for every community.
Build the story in ArcGIS StoryMaps
ArcGIS StoryMaps’ current story builder supports text, media, maps, tables, charts, and immersive blocks. Maps and media can be rearranged as part of the narrative. Its introduction materials describe sharing with an organization, groups, or everyone and co-authoring within an organization. Current pricing and licensing depend on the account and organization, so confirm those terms before committing.
- Create the project record first. Keep your outline, evidence inventory, consent terms, and preservation plan outside the builder so the public page is not the only copy of your work.
- Prepare the map and media. Publish only the layers and files that the selected audience is allowed to see. Use web-friendly derivatives while retaining archival masters separately.
- Open the story builder and establish the opening. State the question, geographic scope, dates, and perspective before the first interactive element.
- Add evidence in sequence. Place a map, photograph, document, interview excerpt, or timeline where it answers the sentence immediately before it. Write captions that identify what readers are seeing and why it matters.
- Connect every item to its source. Credit creators and repositories, give dates and locations, and explain uncertainty or disagreement.
- Use immersive blocks sparingly. If a block does not clarify place, change, or testimony, remove it.
- Save, preview, and check access. StoryMaps includes preview modes for device sizes and a publication check for whether included maps and layers are accessible to the selected audience.
Software labels and controls can change. Use the current StoryMaps help while authoring, and verify that the sharing settings still match your consent agreements.
Make the story accessible while authoring
Accessibility is an editorial requirement, not a final polish step. Esri’s accessibility guidance recommends plain, inclusive language, meaningful alternative text, non-color ways to convey information, captions or transcripts for audio and video, no autoplay, and manual keyboard and screen-reader testing.
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Use this accessibility checklist
- Headings: use a logical heading hierarchy so readers can navigate by section.
- Alternative text: describe the information an image contributes, not just “old photo.” Identify people only when the identification is documented.
- Captions: include creator, date, place, source, rights, and relevant context in readable text.
- Audio and video: provide an accurate transcript; provide captions for video and identify meaningful non-speech sounds when needed.
- Maps: explain the key pattern in prose and, where useful, provide a downloadable or on-page location table. Do not make color the only distinction.
- Links: make link text descriptive, such as “read the interview transcript,” rather than “click here.”
- Contrast and type: use readable sizes and sufficient contrast; do not place essential text over busy photographs.
- Motion: avoid autoplay and give readers control over animation or transitions.
- Keyboard use: tab through the complete story, confirm visible focus, activate controls without a mouse, and check that no element traps focus.
- Screen readers: test headings, alternative text, captions, map explanations, buttons, and reading order with a screen reader.
- Small screens: preview phone and tablet layouts, zoom in, and verify that maps, tables, transcripts, and captions remain usable.
ArcGIS StoryMaps provides keyboard navigation with visible focus, a skip-to-content control, screen-reader support, and standard themes designed for color contrast. Those features do not make every story accessible automatically: author-written text, media descriptions, map alternatives, and document scans still determine whether readers can understand the work.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Review before publication
Run an editorial, rights, technical, and accessibility review with at least one person who did not build the page. Use this checklist:
- Names, dates, quotations, coordinates, captions, and place descriptions match the underlying records.
- Every photograph, map, recording, transcript, and document has a documented source and permitted use.
- Consent scope matches the intended audience and any excerpts or translations.
- Restricted or private layers are not accidentally shared through a public map.
- All audio has a transcript and all video has captions.
- Alternative text describes the purpose of each meaningful image.
- The map’s essential information is available in text or a table.
- Links work, headings are logical, and keyboard and screen-reader paths are usable.
- The story works at phone, tablet, and desktop sizes and remains readable when zoomed.
- Archival masters, transcripts, metadata, consent forms, and access terms are stored separately from the published derivatives.
Use StoryMaps preview mode and its publication check to confirm that maps and layers are accessible to the selected audience. Select the sharing audience—organization, group, or public—only after comparing it with the permissions promised to narrators and donors.
Publish with a maintenance plan
Assign a named person or team to maintain the story after launch. Keep a change log for corrected dates, broken links, replaced media, updated captions, and altered access restrictions. Preserve the original version of corrected text and record why the change was made.
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Schedule periodic checks of external links, map-layer permissions, embedded media, transcripts, and mobile layout. Keep the project inventory and consent terms with the archival record so a future editor can tell which version of an interview or image was authorized.
Troubleshoot common failures
The map is busy but the story is unclear
Return to the central question. Remove layers that do not answer it, group related places, and move detailed data to a table or downloadable record. A smaller set of explained locations is more useful than hundreds of unexplained pins.
An interview cannot be published as planned
Check the consent and access terms before editing around the problem. You may need narrator review, a restricted audience, redaction, a shorter approved excerpt, or a text-only description. Do not publish first and seek permission later.
Readers cannot understand the map without hovering
Add a prose explanation of the pattern, a numbered location list, or a downloadable table. Identify the meaning of symbols and colors in text and avoid relying on a legend that is inaccessible to keyboard or screen-reader users.
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The story works on desktop but fails on phones
Preview the phone layout, shorten dense passages, move essential context before interactive elements, test portrait orientation, and ensure that captions, transcripts, tables, and controls do not require horizontal scrolling.
Collaborators overwrite each other’s work
Agree on a naming convention, assign one editor to the live story, and maintain a separate source-of-truth inventory. Review changes in batches rather than making simultaneous structural edits.
A practical small-project blueprint
A volunteer team can begin with one theme, one period, and a limited set of locations. For example, a “working waterfront, 1945–1985” project might include an opening question, eight documented sites, six photographs, three interviews, a historical map, and a timeline. Each site would have a source note, date context, caption, rights status, and an accessible text description. The team would publish a short first version only after consent, transcript, map-access, and mobile checks, then add material as preservation and permissions allow.
The blueprint is intentionally modest: it gives readers a complete argument rather than an unfinished inventory. Expand the geography or add voices only when the team can document them, explain their relationship to the central question, and preserve the associated records.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I put old photos and stories on a map?
Inventory each item, document its source, date, place, rights, and story role, then attach web-ready copies to mapped locations or a map tour. Keep archival masters and permission records outside the published story.
How can I include oral histories in a local history map?
Obtain informed consent before recording, explain access and reuse, preserve the recording with its transcript and metadata, and publish only the excerpts and audience access the narrator authorized.
How do I make a story map accessible?
Provide meaningful alternative text, captions or transcripts, text explanations of map information, descriptive links, logical headings, readable contrast, keyboard navigation, screen-reader checks, and phone and tablet testing.
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