ABOUT
Obscure Histories is a collection of original, short, and accessible written and visual pieces about overlooked people, places, things, events, and ideas. Stories are based in primary sources. OH has expanded its emphasis to amplify histories about marginalized people around the world.
Obscure Histories is community led and strives for equity in our topics and our authors. Our authors range from professional and amateur historians, educators, and interested hobbyists.
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Obscure Histories is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization, incorporated as of July 1, 2022.
This includes OH subsidiary, OH, Jr.
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The Story
​Obscure Histories was founded in 2014 as a supplemental resource for secondary education. As our audience grew, our content expanded beyond the initial intent. We were reaching many people from around the world, and our content grew to reflect that. Our readers and writers determine what stories we publish.​
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We believe that quality, accessible histories should be free and open to everyone, and that contributors should be compensated for their work. To make this a reality, we began the process of making Obscure Histories a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2022. We were approved to begin fundraising in late 2023.
In 2022, we also founded OH, Jr., the educational outreach arm of OH. OH, Jr. provides curriculum that uses history stories to teach real life skills. Currently, OH, Jr. is offering our History Documentary curriculum, which teaches learners how to write and edit short, history documentaries for video. We are working on an online portal to make it widely available​.​
Core Team
Dana Rovang, PhD
Founder, President, CEO
Ronen Rovang Cornell
Sr. OH, Jr. Advisor
Ernesto Mántaras
Media Director
Our Writing Team
OVER the 10 years that OH has been online, we have been very fortunate to have had a number of remarkable volunteer authors. These volunteer authors contributed multiple pieces each. They are the very heart of OH, and their pieces continue to be relevant and meaningful.
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WHILE we will always accept volunteer submissions, OH is moving to a system of paid freelance writers. We see that the dynamics of writing online content have changed, and we want to make sure that our authors are paid for their intellectual contributions, or receive an in-kind donation receipt.
Herb Wignall was a passionate collector of stamps and regularly gave talks at his stamp club in Pearland, Texas about the thrilling histories behind them. Herb was a lifelong historian in addition to being a consummate teller of jokes. He was also the beloved grandfather of OH founder, Dana Rovang. He was an inspiration for OH, and everywhere he went throughout his life. Herb passed away August 5, 2022, but his histories about stamps will live here forever.