diff --git a/doc/sphinx/src/outputs.rst b/doc/sphinx/src/outputs.rst
index 7196e4777bb3..fa44e27da298 100644
--- a/doc/sphinx/src/outputs.rst
+++ b/doc/sphinx/src/outputs.rst
@@ -194,7 +194,9 @@ block might look like
 
 This will produce a text file (``.hst``) output file every 1 units of
 simulation time. The content of the file is determined by the functions
-enrolled by specific packages, see :ref:`state history output`.
+enrolled by specific packages, see :ref:`state history output`. Per-package history
+outputs will always be in alphabetical order by package name, which may not match
+the order in which packages were added to a simulation.
 
 Histograms
 ----------
diff --git a/src/outputs/history.cpp b/src/outputs/history.cpp
index 2aade658fe00..913a722496a7 100644
--- a/src/outputs/history.cpp
+++ b/src/outputs/history.cpp
@@ -93,7 +93,8 @@ void HistoryOutput::WriteOutputFile(Mesh *pm, ParameterInput *pin, SimTime *tm,
     md_base->Initialize(pm->block_list, pm);
   }
 
-  // Loop over all packages of the application in alphabetical order
+  // Loop over all packages of the application in alphabetical order to ensure consistency
+  // of ordering of data in columns.
   std::vector<std::string> keys;
   for (const auto &pair : packages) {
     keys.push_back(pair.first);