Online resources for the history of religion: a look at national history museums and at the House of European History

Abstract

History museums have been influenced by developments in contemporary museology, opening up to new forms of interaction with their local communities. This is true also in the case of European national history museums, with their growing focus on communicating with the public both through the social media and through their own websites. Images, texts and virtual exhibitions are as many ways of depicting and of narrating a nation's history with the aim of attracting new visitors in what, for many of them, will be their very first contact with an institute of education tasked with building knowledge and identity. People often decide to organise a visit to a museum after viewing its website. Analysing a selection of national museums and the House of European History, we will be asking ourselves questions regarding the presence of the history of religion in these narratives on the web.