Historic Marker Program
Since the 1980s, the SHFS Historic Marker Program has been helping local community groups commemorate their history through Historic Markers. We no longer create new markers, but we have over 150 Historic Markers in our database.
Over the years, we lost touch with many of our markers. Thanks to the efforts of our summer students and volunteers, we now have accurate locations and recent photos of most of our markers.
Explore the map below to see our markers and their locations!
You can download the map's contents as an Excel file here. This Excel file is a copy of the map database and may not show marker status updates that are still pending.
In the summers of 2015 and 2016, our summer students embarked on a project to locate and inventory our historic plaques. Click below to read the reports.
Bonus Info!
But these are just dusty old plaques, right? Maybe…and maybe not. Here are a few great articles and podcasts to get you thinking about why plaques and monuments play an important role in everyday modern life:
Always Read the Plaque: Mapping Over 10,000 Global Markers & Memorials
“Keep your eyes peeled, and always read the plaque.” A story of how readtheplaque.com, a website of plaques and markers from all over the world, got started.
Let's Find Out (Episode 4): The Klan Query
What happens when someone asks to put up a plaque commemorating the dark side of Edmonton’s history? How does the presence of such a memorial, or the lack of it, affect a people’s experience as they make their way around the city?
The Memory Palace (Episode 73): Notes on an Imagined Plaque
“Memorials aren’t memories. They have motives. They are historical, they aren’t history itself.” After a mass murder in a Charleston church, a statue of a former Klansman and military general is moved out of downtown Memphis. Nate Dimao explores why, and why it’s important to understand the history of how a monument is created.