March is Women's History Month, and here on HMdb.org, historical markers and war memorials that touch on women's history make up about 3.35% of all historical markers.
As of today, 3/2/2024, these are the 9 states and one U.S territory with the highest count of markers about women's history:
1. Virginia (556) 2. New York (451) 3. Pennsylvania (414) 4. Texas (393) 5. Maryland (348) 6. California (283) 7. District of Columbia (282) 8. Florida (270) 9. Tennessee (260) 10. Missouri (214)
Additionally, it's a good idea to consider women's history as a proportion of all markers in the area. These states, territories and provinces all include the highest count of historical markers a percentage of their total count (if outside of the U.S., the country is shared):
1. Capital Region, Iceland (21.82%) [Reykjavik area] 2. Madrid, Spain (11.57%) 3. Puerto Rico (11.51%) 4. District of Columbia (10.99%) 5. North Holland, Netherlands (9.84%) [Haarlem and Amsterdam area] 6. Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic (8.62%) [Santo Domingo area] 7. New Mexico (7.92%) 8. Catalonia, Spain (7.14%) [Barcelona area] 9. Alaska (6.42%) 10. Yucatán, Mexico (6.33%) [Mérida area]
Note: In naming these areas, I restricted the % to a minimum of at least 10 markers related to Women's History, with a minimum of at least 50 makers total.
Additionally, women's history ranks in the top 10 topics for the following areas: Capital Region, Iceland (2); Madrid, Spain (3); New Mexico (6); Puerto Rico (7); Catalonia, Spain (8); DC and Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic (9); Hawaii (10).
Topics come next. These are the top 10 topics with overall count of markers related to women's history:
1. Education (1347) 2. Arts, Letters, Music (1143) 3. African Americans (1098) 4. Industry & Commerce (838) 5. Charity & Public Work (819) 6. Civil Rights (797) 7. Churches & Religion (759) 8. Settlers & Settlements (748) 9. Architecture (499) 10. Science & Medicine (497)
Additionally, these topics have the highest proportion of their markers related to women's history:
1. Civil Rights (21.06%) 2. Charity & Public Work (12.18%) 3. Fraternal & Sororal Organizations (12.03%) 4. Arts, Letters, Music (11.13%) 5. Abolition & Underground Railroad (10.02%) 6. African Americans (9.71%) 7. Education (9.02%) 8. Science & Medicine (8.94%) 9. Labor Unions (7.61%) 10. Entertainment (6.73%)
The most-viewed maker of all time relating to women's history is the Clara Barton House in Glen Echo, Maryland. It has been viewed over 26,000 times since it was added in 2006, making it one of the earliest marker profiles on HMdb. As of right now, it is the 18th most-viewed marker in the history of the the database. The Clara Barton House
A great HMdb.org website feature that researchers lose when they download data and use their own spreadsheets is the search f
eature that lets you navigate between entries without having to return to the results list each time (the next and previous buttons). With this new enhancement, you get it back!
One of the columns on your spreadsheet is the MarkerID column. This column contains the “marker number” that identifies each entry. Now you can copy the entire MarkerID column from your spreadsheet and paste it into the “Find Entries by Number” lozenge on the Searches page. When you click Search, you’ll get a custom result list with just the entries you pasted.
When your spreadsheet is sliced and diced just how you want it, copy the entire MarkerID column. Then back at HMdb.org, click on the “Searches” button and scroll down to the bottom. There you’ll find the new “Find Entries by Number” lozenge. Paste the column there and click Search. Don’t worry if your column has a header, it will be ignored.
You can also paste comma separated lists of marker numbers there. Or space separated numbers, or numbers separated any way you want to separate them! Just paste and click.
Could someone tell me where the photos that are on the Morgan in Mackville Historical sign are? I would like to get a copy of the Bob Reid Hotel or the Thompson Hotel that is on the sign. Bob Reid is my 3rd great grandfather. I wish someone would have cleaned the sign completely before they took the photo. Surely a historical society has this photo. Thanks for any help, Anita ([email protected]) Morgan in Mackville
A quick internet search shows better images of at least two of the mentioned photos (see link). The link also references a book by Marshall Hall from 1925 with more details of the raid. Of course the Washington County Historical Society, etc. will have more information. best, https://www.trailsrus.com/morgan/mackville.html
There is a large African American Heritage trail here in mobile and most of the markers I believe are in the HMDB, how can one pull up all of the series in a list? This organization sponsored all the markers Dora Franklin Finley African-American Heritage Trail of Mobile. There are at least 40 markers on the trail.
I posted, to HMdB, 26 of the original 43 "sites" shown on the maps here: https://www.dffaaht.org/tour (#41 does not show on the maps). Others have also added a few. Some sites either never had markers or they are missing/removed etc.
Around 5 of the apparently newer, but not numbered, Dora Franklin Finley attributed markers also show up in the link I have added. (Some other non-applicable markers also show up on the results of the search list and can be disregarded).
A metal name plate "Dora Franklin Finley African-American Heritage Trail" was added later to some markers that were marked "The African-American Heritage Trail of Mobile" on the original marker.
As noted in my previous reply I have added a marker series for this trail. See link below.
As can be seen in the marker se
Sample marker from series.
ries listing compared to the trail maps, sites 9,11,12,17,18,19,21,22,23,25,26,28,36,40 have not been added to HMdB. I visited, as best I could, most of these sites more than 6 years ago and could not find a marker. Dora Franklin Finley African-American Heritage Trail of Mobile Series
Stumbled upon this 9/11 memorial plaque in Elmwood Park, Ill., which turns out to be one of at least a dozen exactly identical markers placed all over the U.S. from 2002-2006 by a funeral services company. Wondering if anyone knows of other instances of marker duplicates like this? 09.11.2001
Believe it or not, duplicate markers are all over the place. ☺️ For instance several national parks around the country have markers about Stephen Tyng Mather.
A thing about those 9/11 plaques that bothers us DC residents is that the Pentagon is not in the District of Columbia; it’s in neighboring Arlington County, Virginia. 🤣 Stephen Tyng Mather
The “Address by President Lincoln” (the Gettysburg Address) marker is in nearly every one of the 125 National Cemeteries across the country. Originally designed in 1909, the markers went back into production 100 years later, in 2009. There are about 75 included in the database. We are no longer allowed to add more. Address by President Lincoln marker in Los Angeles
Speaking of National Cemeteries, there are several of them that have the "A National Cemetery System" markers, which all have the same text and pictures. I've visited at least a dozen National Cemeteries, and the only one I recall that didn't have one of those markers was the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery near Elwood, Illinois. Some national cemeteries also have a marker that talk about Confederate burials but I don't know if they have the same text/pics or not.
Craig, I can see how you might think that, but for those of us who are actual residents of the District, the ontology of what counts as “DC” is a big deal. We’re a U.S. territory with our own identity, culture and history that is distinct from our neighbors and we’re proud of it.
District natives (which I do not claim) have a provincial nature that rivals rural New England’s. ☺️ You can know all the neighborhood and all street names and all 8 wards like the back of your hand, but if you can’t name how many generations your family has been in DC (often enough at least 3), it doesn’t matter.
But long story short, you can see DC from the Pentagon, but the building is plainly in Virginia. Plenty of DC Residents, Virginians, Marylanders and even West Virginians and Pennsylvanians work in that building.
Yup yup, right in the heart of what was Alexandria County, DC, now comprising much of current-day Arlington County, VA!
I’ve heard the story that in addition to being George Washington’s family crest, the three stars represent the three original cities of the District (Georgetown, Alexandria and Washington), and the two bars represent the two original counties (Washington County and Alexandria County) prior to retrocession and then consolidation.
I can’t say whether it’s apocryphal but it’s at least a good story that lines up with current day symbols.
Ah, that's fascinating! National Airport (or Reagan, or Reagan National or just DCA) used to be the same way -- It at one point had a DC address, and in the past few years, it got updated to an Arlington address.
Thirty-two bronze plates outlining the large military fortification were positioned around Charleston's Marion Square and unv
In-Ground Bronze Marker
eiled at a ceremony Feb. 1. They are meant to highlight the history of the Revolutionary War Horn Work, constructed in 1758 at the northernmost reaches of the colonial city and used to control ingress and egress.
Just out of sight, beneath the grassy lawns of Marion Square, there are ruins referred to as “horn work” – pointed structures part of ancient fortifications to help soldiers see the enemy during the colonial era. Marion Square would have been at the edge of town, complete with gates and a moat to protect those inside.
The in-ground markers will help illustrate, interpret, and educate locals and visitors alike while also protecting this archaeological site from any potential damage done by tent stakes placed during some of the city’s many festivals. A colonial-era fortress gets historical markers.
February is African American History Month, and here on HMdb.org about 5.4% of the historical markers and veterans memorials in the database are about African American History.
As of today, 2/2/2024, these are the 9 states and one equivalent with the highest counts of related historical markers:
1. Virginia (1592) 2. Maryland (802) 3. Tennessee (751) 4. Alabama (701) 5. Florida (667) 6. Texas (656) 7. Georgia (516) 8. District of Columbia (509) 9. South Carolina (491) 10.Pennsylvania (469)
Note: Most of these locations are in the U.S. South (depending on different definitions), with the exception of Pennsylvania. That noted, Pennsylvania is home to Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), a Historically Black College or University (HBCU).
Of course, these locations can be affected by their overall high count of markers, so we should look at the number of markers in terms of African American History markers in terms of % of overall markers in the state. In that case, these states and territories have the highest proportion of their markers about African American history:
1. District of Columbia (19.95%) 2. Alabama (17.8%) 3. Mississippi (16.5%) 4. Virginia (12.51%) 5. Maryland (11.07%) 6. South Carolina (10.82%) 7. Florida (10.55%) 8. Tennessee (10.11%) 9. Virgin Islands (9.68%) 10. North Carolina (9.23%)
Once again, these states and territories all lean in the southern United States. The U.S. Virgin Islands is the lone exception and again, it's home to an HBCU, University of the Virgin Islands.
In addition to locations, there are topics that are popular in African American history. These are the 10 most common topics among these markers:
1. Education (23.17%) Civil Rights (21.15%) 3. Churches and Religion (17.78%) 4. Industry & Commerce (12.27%) 5. Settlements (11.26%) 6. Civil War (10.29%) 7. Arts, Letters, Music (10.23%) 8. Women (9.67%) 9. Abolition & Underground Railroad (8.14%) 10. Cemeteries & Burial Grounds (6.84%)
Additionally, these topics have the highest proportion of their markers related to African American history:
1. Civil Rights (63.38%) 2. Abolition & Underground Railroad (57.42%) 3. Education (17.6%) 4. Women (15.7%) 5. Sports (13.62%) 6. (Law Enforcement (13.14%) 7. Entertainment (11.58%) 8. Arts, Letters, Music (11.33%) 9. Churches & Religion (10.67%) 10. Agriculture (7.9%)
At this time, the most viewed marker related to African American history this year so far is In Honor of the Three Known African American Patriots in Blacksburg, South Carolina. It has already amassed nearly 13,000 views since January 1 this year, nearly half of all views it has ever had since its profile was published anonymously in August 2019. In Honor of the Three Known African American Patriots
New York City boasts that it’s the most photographed city in the world. That’s definitely true on HMdb.org with New York City having the highest count of historical markers of any city in the world!
And there’s still plenty to explore! If you find yourself visiting NYC, keep in mind that less than 20% of the population lives in the Borough of Manhattan. Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and even Staten Island have plenty more to explore.
A good source for exploring is to visit NYC Parks. That noted, my experience has been that the agency’s site claims that there are historical markers in quite a few parks that I haven’t been able to find.
Additionally, even the plaques for Project GreenThumb, a community garden project across the city, qualify as historical markers so long as they interpret history.
The elder, William Ward Burrows is noted to be the first Commandant of the Marine Corps - this is incorrect. Samuel Nichols was the first Commandant, William Ward Burrows was the second Commandant of the Marine Corps.
You are most likely referring to the text on the marker outside the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C. I will note two points: that the general policy of HMdb.org is to transcribe markers as they are written. If they are in error a note may be placed on the marker's page. However, this marker was probably placed by the U.S. Marine Corps themselves and not likely in error. Secondly, the USMC University site mentions that they consider Major Samuel Nichols to be the first commandant, stemming from his involvement in the Continental Marines of Revolutionary War fame (see https://www.usmcu.edu/Research/Marine-Corps-History-Division/People/Whos-Who-in-Marine-Corps-History/Mackie-Ozbourn/Major-Samuel-Nicholas/). All the best! Marine Barracks Washington, D.C.
Additionally, there were 26 counties and equivalents in the United States where at least 100 markers were documented:
1. Los Angeles County, California (561) 2. Davidson County, Tennessee (506) [Nashville area] 3. Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania (313) 4. City of St. Louis, Missouri (257) 5. Delaware County, New York (253) [Sidney area] 6. Cook County, Illinois (243) [Chicago area] 7. Suffolk County, Massachusetts (203) [Boston area] 8. Bexar County, Texas (199) [San Antonio area] 9. Monroe County, Florida (184) [Key West area] 10. Chester County, Pennsylvania (173) [Philadelphia suburbs] 10. Guilford County, North Carolina (173) [Greensboro and High Point area] 12. New Castle County, Delaware (154) [Wilmington and Newark area] 13. New York County, New York (142) [Borough of Manhattan in New York City] 14. Wake County, North Carolina (137) [Raleigh area] 15. New London County, Connecticut (135) 16. District of Columbia (131) 17. Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (123) [Pittsburgh area] 18. Cameron County, Texas (121) [Brownsville area] 19. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (117) 19. Lucas County, Ohio (117) [Toledo area] 21. Providence County, Rhode Island (113) 22. Santa Clara County, California (108) [San Jose area] 23. Franklin County, Ohio (104) [Columbus area] 23. Salt Lake County, Utah (104) 23. Auglaize County, Ohio (104) [Wapakoneta area] 26. Hennepin County, Minnesota (100) [Minneapolis area]
Note: There were some counties and equivalents in the rest of the world where over 100 markers were found, some that would even have made the top 10. Amsterdam and Paris deserve to be mentioned.
Also deserving a mention are the 42 U.S. counties and equivalents that were added to the database in 2023:
Iowa
1. Clarke County
North Dakota
1. Benson County 2. Bottineau County 3. Emmons County 4. Foster County 5. Hettinger County 6. McHenry County 7. Oliver County 8. Renville County 9. Rolette County 10. Slope County 11. Towner County 12. Ward County 13. Wells County
South Dakota
1. Mellette County 2. Todd County 3. Tripp County
Puerto Rico [The municipios of Puerto Rico serve the same functions as counties and cities as the rest of the United States.]
1. Arroyo 2. Cabo Rojo 3. Caguas 4. Canóvanas 5. Carolina 6. Cayey 7. Cidra 8. Guayama 9. Guayanilla 10. Gurabo 11. Humacao 12. Juana Díaz 13. Juncos 14. Las Piedras 15. Maunabo 16. Patillas 17. Peñuelas 18. Ponce 19. Río Grande 20. Sabana Grande 21. Salinas 22. San Germán 23. Santa Isabel 24. Yabucoa 25. Yauco
At this time, there is only one county on the U.S. mainland east of the Mississippi River that does not have at least one marker in the database: Florence County, Wisconsin. The remaining counties (and equivalents) and equivalents that have no markers are west of the Mississippi River, in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or in the America Samoa or the Northern Mariana Islands.
Los Angeles County had the most new markers in part because of my effort to get the City of Los Angeles above 1,000 markers (which I did). This became easier with the addition of the new Neighborhood/Township locations. Markers formerly listed only by neighborhood gave a boost to the number of city markers, by about 200.
Craig, great work! Honestly, if there's any one U.S. county that should have a count of over 1,000 markers, it's probably the country's most populous county. Maybe someday soon, the nation's second-most populous (Cook County, Illinois) will also have a count of over 1,000 markers.
Los Angeles County is not just large in population, but in size. I didn't realize it extended several miles on the coast! Craig - it was great visiting your neck of the woods back in October and I was able to get some markers in your area as well. I'll admit I'm not a fan of those cylinder "Angels Walk" markers - but, if that's the way the city wants to tell its story, then great. I was also strolling along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street trying to capture all of the Hollywood landmarks, but unfortunately a lot of those Hollywood Chamber of Commerce markers have gone missing over the years. Luckily I found a complete list of them
Can't say it was an easy task, but I turned to the Wayback Machine for help, looking at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce's site during the 2000s. I'm guessing at least a dozen of the markers are now gone. A couple other things:
-Next time you or someone makes the trip there, check on Marker #22 (Site of the Brown Derby, on Vine Street) as I don't think it is there anymore. I recorded a video tour of Hollywood/Vine for my YT channel and I noticed that one may not have been there. -Also on Vine Street was this small marker I found: Selma Avenue and Vine Street. It is one of four similar markers. Assuming the other three exist, that would be something worth looking into for anyone. Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Historical Marker List
Hello y'all. I'm a cousin of many of you. My grandfather was Thomas Franklin Parnell. His mother was Susanna Annie Ulmer. His
Honor is James Youman's wife
father was Luther Pinkney Parnell. His grandparents on his mother's side were Thomas McTeer Ulmer and Mary Adeline Sauls. His grandparents on his father's side were Franklin J. Parnell Sr. and Sarah R. Youmans. From there we can go to names like DeLoach, Stone, Green, Cone, Langley and the cousins like the Tutens, Goodings and the Langfords. Basically, the entire Low Country. And when we go to my dad's side of the family, just over the border into Georgia, well, the last name is biologically Wright. His mom remarried and he assumed the name of his step-dad "Spikes" and hyphenated, which has caused confusion forever since that day. I was born in Florida, because of the great mass migration that occurred when my great grandparents decided to move to Dunedin, Florida - Pinellas County - around the time of the Great Depression for work. But they forever kept their roots here. I married Danny "Chocolate" Myers of NASCAR fame and Dale Earnhardt, Sr.'s gas man on the team and we live in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. My reason for reaching out is for research on James Ephraim Youmans who was married to Honor Elizabeth Moire? Moree? Goette? Goethe? I'm looking for a connection to his father, William David "Gilly" Youmans, Sr. Does ANYONE have a will from Wm? Or anything where William claims him? Speculation is James E. wasn't Mary Peeples' son. Thoughts? Ideas? Confirmations?
Has anyone checked the pedigree of Robert Keayne? It appears that this surname had several different spellings in contemporary documents Keyne / Keane / Keene and (significantly) King - that is, 'Keane' pronounced with a Berkshire accent: spelling at this date reflected local pronunciation. This was a prominent Windsor family before Robert made his mark on 17c. New England. A will of 1591, for example, was made by Robert Keane or King, a glazier of Windsor and, of about the same date, a William King was a cleric in Windsor, attached in some way to the royal chapel of St George, Windsor, although before his death, living in London: both points significant in the published biography of Robert Keayne. A further William King was a contemporary Windsor baker and inn-keeper, also holding property in the town's butchery, which might connect to the father of Robert Keayne - John Keayne - who is noted as a butcher. Although artisans, the family were nonetheless wealthy.
Given the importance of Robert Keayne to New England history, has anyone tried to construct his English family pedigree? It might provide some interesting background information to explain his later importance.
It would also be interesting to know on what basis River Street was said to be Robert Keayne's birthplace - the location of his memorial plaque. Reference to other members of this family concern property elsewhere in the town, on Peascod Street (the main shopping Street) and on the High Street. River Street in the 16th c. was called Beer Lane, a reference to its several breweries - although I think the property marked as his birthplace wasn't an inn at this date, although the evidence is ambiguous.
As of today, the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society has ordered the first William G. Pomeroy Foundation Historic Transportation Series marker from the designated manufacturer, using the grant money provided. You may see an e-generated image of the marker "R.R. Signal Tower" rotate among the images displayed on our home page in the Pomeroy Foundation window at the upper right. The marker will be numbered 1! The text was revised after the image was created upon considering that the word "electronic" was historically inaccurate! The marker text will be "electrical" instead. This proves the value of seeking out many reviewers of proposed texts! Go to the Foundation website to learn how you may apply for a historical marker grant through your 501(c)(3) organization.
Hello, I am new to this site, and appreciate the interesting information offered. Walking through my neighborhood in Fairfax City Virginia I came across a very large oak tree with a constitutional bicentennial marker. Can anyone tell me more about that designation, and in particular whether a national listing exists of trees so designated? Of course I'll also inquire at the house where the tree is, but it would be nice to have some background information when I do so.
Article about a Witness Tree in Oregon provides additional info about U.S. Constitution Bicentennial Living Witness Trees.
International Society of Arboriculture Witness Tree Marker
Apparently there were 61 certified U.S. Constitution Bicentennial Living Witness Trees (not all currently living), done so by the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and the former National Arborist Association.
In the United States and Canada, the challenge to become a State Champion varies among the states, provinces, and territories.
At this time, there are 6 states and territories that do not yet have 3 state champions but have at least 100 markers, so these are the absolute easiest. Just find 25 markers in any one of them, and you're on the list: Alaska, Alberta, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Puerto Rico, and Saskatchewan.
Then there are three additional areas where you do not need to find more than 50 to get on the list: Hawaii (38), New Brunswick (39), and Newfoundland and Labrador (48).
Then there are 19 states, provinces and territories where you need to find 50 to 100 markers to make the list. Some of these areas do not yet have 100 markers in HMdb. To be listed, you will need to ensure that the state, province or territory has at least 100 markers and submit at least 25 of the markers, and then the area will generate on the State Champions list:
Yukon 61 Montana 65 Idaho 66 Maine, New Hampshire, and Virgin Islands 69 Rhode Island 77 Kansas 78 Québec and Wyoming 81 North Dakota 85 Nevada 86 Guam 89 Nebraska 90 British Columbia 93 American Samoa 98 Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Northern Mariana Islands 100
And then there are more than a dozen states and a province that require a finding 101-200 markers:
Vermont 107 Arizona 113 Nova Scotia 115 Iowa 118 Louisiana 122 Washington 126 Utah 131 Delaware 135 Colorado 144 Connecticut 145 New Mexico 146 Arkansas 151 Oregon 165
Then there are 23 states, a province and a territory that each require finding more than 200 but fewer than 1000 markers to guarantee your spot:
Ontario 216 South Dakota 231 Oklahoma 233 Minnesota 236 Mississippi 251 South Carolina 268 District of Columbia 280 Massachusetts 291 Illinois 388 North Carolina 391 Kentucky 418 West Virginia 446 Wisconsin 450 Tennessee 520 Indiana 539 New Jersey 540 Michigan 555 Florida 561 Alabama 591 Maryland 670 Missouri 805 Georgia 971 Texas 991
And then there are 5 states where you need to find over 1000 markers in order to make the list. You're not making these 5 by accident: Ohio (1086), Pennsylvania and Virginia (1397), California (1473), and finally New York (1639).
I'm honestly surprised that it takes fewer than 1000 submissions to be named a State Champion for Texas! Good luck to those who are competitive! Are you working on becoming a State Champion?
Next up, we have the coveted Golden Ms! For the first time in 2023, there were 6 contributors who added over 1000 markers each!
1. Devry Becker Jones (2586) 2. Duane and Tracy Marsteller (2086) 3. Craig Doda (1423) 4. James Hulse (1244) 5. Cosmos Mariner (1204) 6. Andrew Ruppenstein (1162) Honorable mention: Darren Jefferson Clay (982)
I'd like to point out some notes about the other Golden M contributors: Duane and Tracy Marsteller: This is the second year in a row that they contributed over 2,000 markers in a year. They have made the Golden M list every year since 2020, when they submitted their 100th marker. Additionally, they have been named on the State Champions list for 11 states!
Craig Doda (formerly TeamOHE): Craig has made the Golden M list every year since 2021. He submitted his 100th marker in 2020. Additionally, he has been named a State Champion of 3 states!
James Hulse: He has also been on the Golden M list every year since 2021. His 100th marker was also submitted in 2020. He has been named a State Champion of 4 states. He joined the Board of Editors last year as well.
Cosmos Mariner: He has been on the Golden M list every year since 2018. That same year, he was the most prolific contributor. He is on the State Champion list for 23 states and is very well-traveled! His 100th marker was submitted in 2014.
Andrew Ruppenstein: This is the first time that Andy has made the Golden M list. That noted, he is a seasoned contributor and Regional Editor. He has been named a State Champion for 7 states, all international: Vienna, Paris, Bavaria, North Holland, Catalonia, Madrid, and England. His 100th marker was submitted all the way back in 2009.
Devry modestly neglected to tell his own history with the Golden Ms. So I'll tell it.
Devry Becker Jones has been on this exclusive list since 2018—six years in a row. He submitted his 100th marker in 2017 and is a State Champion for 12 states plus DC and Puerto Rico. He's done a lot of traveling up and down the Eastern time zone this past year, with prolific excursions into Central and Atlantic time.
Devry has charted with the most Golden Ms over the years because of two near misses by long-time prolific contributor and editor William Fischer, Jr. In both 2015 and 2013 Bill submitted 999 entries, missing by one each time. But for another entry each, he would charted 7 times. But then, we were not celebrating Golden Ms back then.
Thank you, prolific marker hunters, for the phenomenal work you've accomplished in 2023—almost 10,000 new entries! And thanks to the rest of us, the less prolific hunters and editors, who together filed the other 11,000 entries of 2023! Let's give ourselves a big round of applause!
Now that 2023 is, umm, history, I’m going to do a few posts to summarize the changes to the non-US portion of the database, to put things in perspective and maybe add a couple of thoughts.
I) First up is the number of additional markers/memorials by country. Here’s the numbers added from January 1 thru December 31, 2023 for the top 10 contributing countries:
Overall, it was a banner year for all of the above, except for Mexico and Germany, which have done better in previous years. Norway joined the database in 2023 (more on that later).
The 2,987 non-US markers/memorials that entered the database in 2023 represented roughly 12.7% of the 23,590 that were added.
Excluding war memorials, the 2,859 non-U.S. historical markers added represent about 13.6% of the 21,026 historical markers added to the database.
Looking only at war memorials, the 244 non-US war memorials were about 7.7% of the entire 3,155 war memorials added.
(A word of caution here - the historical markers and war memorial counts both include those that got coded as “both”, hence the caution to not add them or your head might explode.)
It's time again to take a look at the year in review for how active we were. This year, I will be focusing on US activity. One of our international editors, Andrew Ruppenstein, has agreed to take on the challenge of the rest of the world. 😊
The ten most active states in terms of pure numbers were:
1. Texas (1711) 2. Pennsylvania (1523) 3. California (1422) 4. North Carolina (1421) 5. New York (1045) 6. Ohio (1040) 7. Florida (941) 8. Michigan (933) 9. Tennessee (885) 10. Indiana (866)
Some surprises here -- Virginia is not on the top 10. It's always been an active, and for years it had the highest count of markers. It still holds the third highest count of markers of any state in the U.S., but may very well soon be eclipsed by Pennsylvania.
Indiana made the list. There has been a lot of activity in the state in the past year, particularly from Lou Donkle, Craig Doda, and Cosmos Mariner. It's great to see it make the list!
I'm not surprised that Texas, Pennsylvania, California, New York, Ohio, Florida, and Tennessee all made the list, since they all are part of the 10 most active states in this database.
Another way to look at the data is marker count by % of markers entered last year. These 10 have seen the most dramatic growth:
I just wanted to remind all contributors who receive the HMDB "Monthly Newsletter" to, when your time allows, read or at least look through it. It appears that J.J. puts considerable time and effort into it, which I for one, am thankful of. I had asked him a question via email, and instead of answering my question personally, he addressed/answered it in the November newsletter for anyone to to read as a helpful hint in my, or anyone's, personal marker searching. I want to thank him here publicly, and again am grateful to be part of such a wonderful and dedicated group of historical marker/history enthusiasts.
I email a monthly newsletter to editors that lists usage counts and other technical matters pertaining to the database and website. Send me your email address and I'll add you to the list.
Locally I have noticed several markers I'm coming across that involve either acts of heroism or Line of Duty deaths of firefi
ghters that really do not fit any of the current main topics. I have used the generic "Heroes" topic but I have a suggestion I'd like to throw out here. There is a topic titled "Law Enforcement" but none for firefighters or EMS workers. Can we include all the above in a new topic entitled "First Responders"? That would include the current "Law Enforcement" but would add firefighters and EMS to this new topic. Or could the "heroes" topic be moved to a main topic? Below is a link to one of my entries I can use as an example. In memory of Jeffrey W. Jones
Usually for firefighters and EMS workers, the Charity and Public Work category is used. The Editorial Guidelines have a blurb about police and firefighter dedications usually not serving as historical markers:
For the most part memorial and dedication plaques will not be allowed, including police and firefighter memorials. Most name and date the memorial, and follow with a list of names and titles. But if they enlighten the passerby with the reason or significance of the installation then they become historical markers and get in. “John Smith was a great public servant” does not enlighten. Neither does “John Smith died in the line of duty.” “John Smith served from 1889 to 1923 as Chief of Police” is just name, title and dates. But “John Smith was the first Chief of Police” or “John Smith reduced crime by 50%” could be argued into the database.
Occasionally, dedication plaques about public servants dying in the line of duty still make it into the database that wouldn't qualify on their own. If they share the individual's historical significance or include a fuller narrative they definitely qualify. However, most don't. I hope this helps explain why the lack of category. Editorial Guidelines
Found this news article/story from a Baton Rouge TV station about a local artist repainting and restoring faded Louisiana "Pelican" markers. Link to story
On a recent day walking around the new tunnel tops park and marsh at Crisy Field in the Golden Gate National Recreation area
One of the several plaques located around the marsh
of San Francisco I came upon a couple "in-ground" plaques made of bronze and artfully educating me about what went on there historically. They were unknown to the NPS ranger in the visitor center and I think pre-date the park services ownership. Anyone know anything about them? Parksconservancy.org/park-e-ventures-article/crissy-field-then-and-now
I am looking for Gorge Washington smith brothers burial place and Tombstone.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=137355
His brother is my 3rd Great grandfather, John married my 3rd Great grandmother Lucretia Harrison. I would love to find where they are buried. I have been looking for a long time. I know where a lot of his brothers and sisters are buried and even his parents, Robert McCoy smith and Belinda Goode. And also looking for John’s grandparents Jonathan Smith and Elizabeth Wood. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=137355
You have probably tried everything we might suggest here, like Genealogy.com, FamilySearch.org, and Ancestry.com. (I saw your comments on FindAGrave.com). Local librarians might find something for you. Good luck with your search!
If you wanted to automate "what makes for a more important historical marker entry", what criteria would you use? If you were writing a tour-guide app that wanted to avoid offering you mediocre markers that just barely passed our criteria for inclusion, how would you sort a list of markers near each other in order of significance?
Take these two entries near each other. The first is about a community bandstand that was relocated to here in 1924. The second, just a hundred feet away, is about one of the Confederate surrenders that ended the American Civil War. I'd be upset if the app offered me the bandstand before the surrender.
They both have about the same amount of text, so you can't count on text length. The second has more photographs than the first, but can that be counted on? The second one uses the word "war" 12 times and the first none. The second has an Also-See link, so because there is other info out there on the internet for its topic maybe it is more important.
There is no doubt to us human beings which one is more significant. But how do you begin to automate this?
Andrew Ruppenstein has come up with a simple and easy-to-implement solution that includes the human element. He had trouble posting a response so he sent me an email. The answer: pageviews! Compute a rank based on, say, pageviews divided by the length of time the marker's entry has been in the database.
I'm going implement this for the API that apps use to query the database. And also his other suggestion: a search sort based on this rank.
Using a formula that divides the number of views by the days the entry has been available for viewing while weighing the current year's views ten times more importantly than previous years, and multiplying the result by 1000: the bandstand ranks 11 while the surrender ranks 90.
The most popular entry this year, the Venice Canal marker, ranks 1697; and the most popular entry ever, Still on Patrol, ranks 2234.
I think the rank value itself is meaningless. It's the difference in rank for a set of entries that makes this value useful. Let's call it the ViewRank.
Hey J.J. This was something we spent a decent amount of time thinking about with the ExploreHere app. Like you mentioned; its
a tough thing to automate, but with the recent advancements in AI/ML, we thought it might be a good tool to try 'scoring'.
The first thing we thought about is... 'What does important mean'? For our first pass, we simplified that question to 'how historically important is this marker'? We went ahead and built up a rubric defining what 'historically important' meant on a scale from 1-10; Not significant (1), Minor significance (2), Some significance (3), Significant (4), Important (5), Very important (6), Pivotal (7), Transformative (8), Monumental (9), Iconic (10). The full prompt we used further elaborated.
Given ChatGPT this prompt and the marker content, we found it would produce both precise and accurate results. In your above example; GPT4-T rated the first marker (bandstand) as a 2/10, and ranked 'Bennett Place' as a 7/10; small sample size, but just showing it did work!
I think fully answering what is 'important' is more complex than this single result; the next thing we'd like to do is to run every marker against a few more 'vectors' like how 'novel' a marker is, or how important was it to the advancement of science, etc.
Once you get a bunch of values, you can combine them into a vector and start sorting them based off a weighted algorithm; this also forms the basis for a really awesome customized recommendation system.
I attached a photo of the output score distribution on the first pass as well as the full blog post write-up of our method.
The development team for the ExploreHere app, which receives much of its information from HMdb is requesting input from people who love interpreting history and historical markers.
If anyone is interested in working with them to help develop the next generation of the app, please reach out to Wesley Vance at [email protected] for more information.
Full Disclosure: I have not been compensated for the post, but was given a free upgrade for the app in early testing when the original application was in development. I use the application when traveling and have been sharing feedback since its first playtesting phase to give feedback. ExploreHere Twitter/X Profile
Thanks Devry for that warm welcome, and hello everyone! I'm Wes, the developer of the ExploreHere app. We built an iOS and Android app that makes viewing HMdb markers easy while traveling!
As Devry said, we're working on our next big update and are looking to talk to historical marker enthusiasts, and travelers to make sure we're building the right things.
If you’re interested in helping the app out, I’d love to hop on a short call and chat about history, your travels, and your experience with historical markers and give you a sneak peak of what we’re working on.
I'm not trying to bog down the HMDb with series upon series, but I've found that there has been confusion concerning the Distinguished Service Cross/Navy Cross/Air Force Cross Recipients series. Hence I, being retired military (and NOT a recipient of any of the listed awards), have proposed new "Valor in Aerial Operations" and "Distinguished Service Medal" series in hopes of clarifying such.
The DSC/NC/AFC is the second highest US award for valor in combat, below only the Medal of Honor in precedence, and is only awarded for valor in combat. See included link for a simple order of precedence for US valor awards.
The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and Air Medal can be awarded for valor in combat OR for aerial achievement in peacetime (i.e. USAF Hurricane Hunters routinely earn these). The DFC are NOT comparable to the DSC/NC/AFC. Hence, I have removed a half dozen or more HMDb entries from that series when the recipient received the DFC and not the DSC/NC/AFC.
I have added a "Distinguished Service Medal" series because it is a separate decoration that is NOT of necessity a wartime valor award, although this does get muddied by including the former UK/Commonwealth DSM which was typically a valor medal for action at sea. But it made sense to include it in the DSM series to limit(?) name confusion.
I hope this makes sense and I appreciate your consideration when adding to these series.
Is there any way to make contact with contributors? James Hulse of Medina, Texas either created or made changes to the Velehrad Cemetery in Lavaca County, Texas historical marker page on this website. Http://https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=207519
Why was the sign moved from it original location to the Otsego Park. Is that closer to Missionary Island? It seems to me it is further away on the map from the location that it could have been located. Maumee Indian Mission Historical Marker
Contact Wood County Park District with questions about the marker installed in Otsego Park. Looking at the marker page, it seems this marker was originally located next to a roadway with no parking and no sidewalk. The new location is in a public park. Access to the marker is now easier and safer, which could be the reason they moved it. If visiting a marker is dangerous, then safety becomes more important than its proximity to the historic site. Sometimes a marker is relocated to a public place just so more people will see it and learn about local history. Otsego Park itself is historic - established in 1937 - with a stone hall built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Contact the park district, and let us know what you find out. Wood County Park District
Is there any rule, or does anyone have any advice, for naming a plaque that has no direct title, and no easily discernible ti
tle? The text just starts, and then just continues… Can we create one, based on the subject, even if it’s not directly on the marker? I’ve got one I just don’t know what to call. “Near this spot” just doesn’t quite cut it lol.
Usually, a succinct title based on the subject matter is usually best. Unfortunately, I'm unable to read the image of the marker as it's attached to offer any more specific help here.
Recently I have had corrections made to markers I have submitted. I stand before the marker, take a photo, back up take another photo to show marker from a distance. Over the last few months I have received notification of changes to markers I have submitted. The corrections are a matter of feet from my reported coordinates. I am all for making it easier for our followers to find listed markers. Yet, Really change the site for a matter of feet taken from a different location from the original? Why would an editor change this? I would Really like to know???
You enjoy hunting markers and adding them to the database. Others enjoy squinting at maps and moving the pushpin a few feet closer. Would you want to take their joy away?
As a general principle, you don't need much more precision in recording your measurements than there is accuracy built into them. Using too much precision can mislead people into believing the accuracy is greater than it really is. Generally, when you degrade precision--that is, use fewer decimal places--you can lose some accuracy. But how much? It's good to know that the meter was originally defined (by the French, around the time of their revolution when they were throwing out the old systems and zealously replacing them by new ones) so that ten million of them would take you from the equator to a pole. That's 90 degrees, so one degree of latitude covers about 10^7/90 = 111,111 meters. ("About," because the meter's length has changed a little bit in the meantime. But that doesn't matter.) Furthermore, a degree of longitude (east-west) is about the same or less in length than a degree of latitude, because the circles of latitude shrink down to the earth's axis as we move from the equator towards either pole. Therefore, it's always safe to figure that the sixth decimal place in one decimal degree has 111,111/10^6 = about 1/9 meter = about 4 inches of precision.
It's highly likely the editors are adjusting the coordinates because the original ones are not accurate. Cell phone GPS typically triangulates location by using nearby cell towers, but the method does not always report the right location and sometimes not even close to it. I've gotten coordinates from my phone GPS that were off by several meters from the marker location, which I've then had to fix manually while submitting entries. The worst was when the phone GPS reported the marker I took a picture of was 20 meters away – on the opposite side of a river. After that, I got a satellite GPS receiver to sync to my phone. I would strongly recommend that you get one if you haven't done so already. And it's always a good idea to doublecheck the coordinates pulled from your photo metadata.
Thank you for your response, yet I think you are saying submitters for whatever reason post the wrong gps coordinates requiring editors added work to get proper coordinates? That is not the problem I was addressing. My concern dealt with fellow contributors submitting corrections based only on extending coordinates beyond six digits. The point I was trying to make was extending coordinates past six digits is only at best a 4 inch difference of the actual location. My concern was why would someone update a qualified location for a 4 inch correction. Again, thank you for your comments, just an update for you … IPhones 14 and 15 do provide satellite coordinates when there is no cell phone reception maybe you didn’t realize that?
Thanks for the reply and clarification. I wasn't implying that submitters purposefully submit incorrect marker coordinates; I was only noting the limitations of some phones' GPS technology. I agree with you that extending marker coordinates by a few decimal places in the pursuit of greater precision does seem a bit extreme, but it personally doesn't bother me when it's done on my entries (as long as the placement is correct). As far as the latest phones go, satellite GPS capability sounds wonderful to me - probably because I'm still using an iPhone 10 (or is it X?) as anything above that is well out of my budget.
The total number of times an marker entry has been viewed by our readers can be used as a representation of our readers’ interest in it, but this disadvantages recent entries that would have had more views if we had discovered them sooner. I’m trying to compute a value that would attempt to correct for this.
I am looking for a formula that computes a reader's interest rank, so I can sort a list by relative interest. The problem is that I only have three variables to work with: lifetime view count (LV), this year’s view count (YV), and the age (A) of the entry, which is the number of days since the entry was published.
I tried dividing LV by A but it ranked recently added entries too heavily to be useful. Using YV in place of LV would cause a problem every January, when it gets reset to zero. Maybe a combination of the three, with some weighing? Or maybe ignoring entries with view counts under 100? under 500? A statistician I am not.
You can plot the age of the marker (x-axis) vs. the lifetime count and generate a trend line that expresses the average rate of view growth/year. Markers above this average line are those of greater interest, but the reason isn't revealed. The marker may be in on a major road or in a park where people have time to make a search. Markers below the line are of lesser interest. The line will also tell you if a marker is showing unusual activity regardless of its age.
If it is easy for you to manipulate the data, I think it would be worthwhile to plot LV (x-axis) vs. (LV/A) and, perhaps, the opposite case, (LV/A) vs LV. Bell shaped curves (Gaussian curves) should be generated. (Please keep in mind I haven't actually done this.) Considering the first graph, markers of lesser interest will fall to the left side of x-axis and the most popular to the right. Markers on the far right are those that have sustained a constant interest despite low annual viewing rates. These markers will be rather old or had a big burst of popularity at some point. By choosing a convenient x, you can filter out the noise and allow you can more easily look for commonalities in the more popular markers in a much smaller set.
Thanks Steve. You've given me something to work with.
And here's a spreadsheet of the dataset for New York State, so anyone who would like could play along. Crunch the numbers and tell us what you think our readers are most interested in in New York, and most importantly, how you got to your answer. Excel Spreadsheet for New York State
Thats the fine tuning I don't know the answer to. How much do you handicap older entries to let newer ones register. Too much and you do the older ones a disservice.
I've played with the data a bit and found that converting the age from days to years (dividing by 365.25), rounding up. A marker that is one day to 365 days shows as 1 year. 1 year, 1 day shows as 2 years. This information shows as Years Rounded Up (YU).
A / 365.25 = YU
Then, I calculated a relative score based on Lifetime View Count, divided by Years Rounded Up (Score).
LV / YU = Score
The top 100 of this scoring show on the Unweighted Score tab.
---
Additionally, there is a Weighted Score, where this year's view count (YV) has some pull. The formula works by adding:
Hi everyone! Just wanted to share with you that Twinkl USA has put together Field Trip Directory for teachers and parents to find engaging and educational field trip locations that have been hand-picked by our team of educators. Anyone might have some recommendations across York? Field Trips by Twinkl USA
I am looking for information regarding Maria Ross Mulkey. She died in the Trail of Tears in 1838 maybe December. She was the youngest sister of Chief John Ross of the Cherokees. Maria died leaving 4 Children and husband, Jonathan Mulkey. Any information or clues are deeply appreciated. I enjoyed your site. Thank you for all your work.
just a heads up, I was at the Perryville battlefield today and noticed they redid the markers from the ones on the site they're in different colors some with new names some with the same names. I didn't get pics of all the new ones.
Recently looking for the remains of a second train bridge between Hedley and Keremeos I found cable remains in the river just
Just east of Riverside RV Park on Hwy 3
east of Hedley which confirm it's location which I recall from the 1960s before it was removed. This section of VVAE railway interests me and it would be great to find a map of this railway, I wonder if one even exists!
I am trying to incorporate columns into my submission, but can't seem to get the column head spaced correctly or then lis the names appropriate under each column. How can I do this. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=233607
The Guidelines say: With the marker’s inscription, there is no need to format the text exactly as the marker has it. Reproduce the text in easy-to-read paragraphs. This website makes it harder for you to create line breaks in the inscription for a reason. (See your marker page for an example)
One of the first guidelines for our site, maybe the most important one is that the submitter actually be at the marker for submission. I have looked at this and my extensive research indicates there are many markers submitted and approved where the submitter never visited the site. Please, Please show me I am wrong?
Finally… if the major guideline for this site has changed please tell me?
We have rules, and we occasionally break them. Here are three exceptions to this one:
1. There was an experiment I talked the Board of Directors into approving in February 2022 to use well-researched public domain and Creative Commons licensed photos to create entries. There were a lot of correspondents and editors including yourself who were not happy about this and let us loudly know. The experiment was terminated four months later.
2. We've always had this exception: "for some very few entries without photos, their location was carefully researched." Regional editors can approve entries after careful research is verified, but don't do this very often. These researched entries can contain Creative Commons photographs. But see No. 1 above, because we're not keen on entries based on CC photos.
3. This is not really an exception, but it's worth mentioning. There are correspondents and editors who create entries using photographs taken by a friend or acquaintance who could not be bothered to enter them themselves. This has always been allowed and editors are very careful to verify the correspondent has permission to use the photos. I don't think it breaks this rule since our correspondent vouches for the photographer who stood in front of the marker.
The Locations page has been updated with better automatic scrolling and with the addition of country pop-up maps. Since the p
age was rebuilt five years ago, browser technology has improved and starting today the page takes advantage of smooth-scrolling positioning to bring columns you've clicked for into view without over-scrolling.
And you'll find new Ⓜ icons that pop up maps of the world to show the country in question in relation to its neighbors. In 2021 a machine-manipulatable blank world map was published in the public domain on Wikimedia Commons and I've incorporated it into the database for this new feature. Rather than storing a map for each country, the same map is panned, zoomed, cropped, and highlighted on demand to create a static map that displays the selected country.
One thing that remains problematic are the varying sizes and colors of type for the circled letters and numbers. I'm still waiting for the day UTF icons get standardized.
Please email me if you run into any trouble, and feel free to reply to this post if you have any suggestions for additional improvements to this page.
This is great! Thank you for any enhancements that help with international use! Would it be possible to see a region-wide map of markers in some of the smaller countries of the world? Or multiple countries together, like the US and Canada or Guatemala and El Salvador? Mil gracias!
Regions of the World would be an excellent new feature, as would regions of the U.S. A problem would be when regions do not correspond to country and state boundaries. But then problems have solutions.
The last of the backlog has been cleared—thank you, editors! We now know which is the definitive 200,000th entry in the Histo
rical Marker Database.
William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton, Pennsylvania, submitted the 200,000th entry on September 4, 2023. It is titled African American Life. He first clicked the Submit button for that entry at 7:06 PM EDT, and that click became another milestone for the Historical Marker Database. Congratulations!
Bill also managed to file another milestone, the 25,000th entry back in 2010. He's submitted more than 15 thousand entries with more than 50 thousand photographs since he joined the team of self-directed volunteers back in 2008. That's a lot of markers! And that's a lot of driving and walking around!
Thank you, Bill, for this and all the other entries you've added. And thank you, our 6,818 contributing correspondents and editors, for all the work and dedication that went into the other 199,999 entries in this, what Smithsonian magazine recently called “the most comprehensive resource of its kind.”
Makali Bruton recently filed This Entry from Spain, a four-language marker at the Montjuïc Fortress in Barcelona. It is in Calalá
The Count of Barcelona
n, Spanish, English, and French. One translation drew my eye: In English, Louis XIII, the French king and also the Count of Barcelona, is described as the “flamboyant Count of Barcelona.” But in Spanish and Catalán, he is described as the flamante or flamant count, and that word can translate to “brilliant,” “superb”, or “brand new” depending on the context. But I can’t find “flamboyant” as a possible translation.
The French translation uses nouveau, and gave me the clue, and Wikipedia concurred: Nouveau means “new,” and the King of France had been recently named the Count of Barcelona in the timing of the history that was being described.
But was the newly-named Count of Barcelona also an exuberant and stylish person? On the marker, and on our transcription of it, he remains the flamboyant Count of Barcelona.
Interesting! As JJ (and others that are lucky enough to speak multiple languages) knows, this is a great representation of 'false friends', words in two languages that look or sound similar but have very different meanings. The first one normally mentioned for English speakers learning Spanish is embarrassed/embarazada...which in Spanish means 'pregnant'. This is critical to know! During that same trip in Spain I saw the word 'pastis' on a local menu and asked for the strong-licorice flavored French liquor...but was surprised to hear that in Barcelona it is a cake! And so close to France! Always be careful with those 'false friends'!!
It's been published! You caught a great visual! And I echo your congratulations: Congratulations to us! All of us. Each of us
By Antoni Espinosa (CC By-sa 4.0)
. We did it! 200K! And there is no doubt we'll be at a quarter million shortly.
At the moment, the entry showing as the 200,000th published entry was submitted at 11:42 AM EST this morning. But there are still quite a number of earlier pending ones and each time one of those pending ones are published, the pawl will ratchet back pointing to an earlier entry as the next temporary 200,000th entry until the backlog clears. This is because the system timestamps entries with the submission date and time, not when they are published.
It may be a week before we know which one will be the definitive 200K entry.
Just seventeen more entries to publish or reject and we'll know what the true 200,000th published entry will be. Unfortunately, many of these have been placed on hold while an editor waits for something or another they need to publish them. At this writing, the pawl rests on an entry that was filed Monday the 4th at 9:19 PM. Will it ratchet earlier 17 more times? Or will it ratchet a fewer number of times, if some of the pending entries end up getting rejected?
Here are the contenders at the moment: ten marker hunters. Some of them have more than one entry on the ratchet. ►Tim Boyd of Hamilton Ontario, ►Brandon D Cross of Flagler Beach Florida, ►William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton Pennsylvania, ►James Hulse of Medina Texas, ►Devry Becker Jones of Washington District of Columbia, ►Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral Florida, ►McGhiever of St Paul Minnesota, ►Bradley Owen of Morgantown West Virginia, ►Cajun Scrambler of Assumption Louisiana, ►Trevor L Whited of Kokomo Indiana.
Tonight there are just three unpublished entries sitting behind the current 200,000th, which was filed at 7:40 PM EST on the 4th. These are from way back in the queue so they themselves are not the contenders. But as they are published or rejected, they will affect which of four entries will become the true 200,000th database entry.
These are the marker hunters remaining in contention. They are listed in alphabetical, not time order: ►William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton Pennsylvania, ►Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral Florida, ►Bradley Owen of Morgantown West Virginia, ►Cajun Scrambler of Assumption Louisiana.
Will Cajun Scrambler be sending himself the Cajun Gift Box prize?
Tonight there is just one older pending marker still in the queue, which means there are two marker hunters remaining in contention: ►William Fischer, Jr. of Scranton Pennsylvania, and ►Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral Florida.
How about this oddity? An old bronze marker actually embedded into a new bronze address plate!
I challenged our Chicago M
Old Fort Dearborn Marker
etro Correspondent Sean Flynn to find a 1932 Colonial Dames plaque that was purported to be on Lower Lower Wacker Drive (a subterranean—but genuine—Chicago street two levels below current street level that Google Maps can’t figure out how to show you). He found it without leaving his house by doing some digging that led to his carefully examining this entry by Allen C. Browne that had been on our website since 2014. Old Fort Dearborn
Seems that the original marker was cleaned up and embedded into a larger street-number plate when the building it was on was refurbished. Look at photo No. 3 and read commentary No. 2 to learn the clue Sean found. Based on his discovery I updated the Erected-By on the entry.
Markers depicting memorials aren’t that rare. But markers depicting, well, markers? I’d swear I’ve seen a few, but only this
Sir William Osler in Canada marker, photo by Tim Boyd, 4/2023
comes to mind now. Our friend Tim Boyd of Hamilton, Ontario contributed this one, Sir William Osler in Canada, at the end of last April. I was fairly amazed when I saw it - it’s either genius or an abomination, I can’t decide which. Like the one JJ noted in the above, it’s something of a chimera.
Another odd set is out there: Historical Markers that point out historical markers! This one (erected as part of the Keyser H
Historical Marker near Post Office
istorical Walking Trail) functions to point out the marker to whose base it is affixed which was erected by the State of West Virginia. Historical Marker near Post Office
When a famous golfer has a really bad day at the L.A. Open, a plaque was installed. Then the plaque became famous. After it was stolen, a new, larger plaque was installed featuring a replica of the original: Arnold Palmer Took a 12 on This Hole
How about a photo of the new marker printed on the marker? Actually, a photo that shows the pedestal & frame for the new marker: Petre Ranch House - Heritage Square
An article in the Smithsonian magazine yesterday notes that "when it comes to historical markers, the hidden truth is this: In any given state, as many as ten or more entities could be putting up signs at the same time. Decades ago, states typically had just one official marker program. Now, many more state, local and private entities, each with their own policies and processes, regularly erect markers."
It goes on to say "Given broad similarities in design, it’s difficult to tell who’s responsible for the more than 185,000 markers recorded in the Historical Markers Database — a volunteer-run online catalog that’s arguably the most comprehensive resource of its kind—without a close inspection."
Recently had a change to a marker I submitted. The marker was difficult to transcribe, it was a more than a thousand word marker. After the change was approved it took me awhile but find that the change was an “m” at the end of one word as opposed to an “n”.
Is this where we are? Personally, I try to spend my time researching and locating markers.
I've had people correct me on my spelling errors a few times, and I've corrected probably 10-15 marker pages submitted by others. For some people like me, spelling is a pet peeve, but we live in an age now where it is easy to overlook our small typing mistakes. (Also, sometimes if the marker has a misspelled word, I usually don't correct it as I have it the same spelling they did...I realize a lot will disagree with this) Just remember, we're all volunteers on here, making this site better and better.
No, a spelling correction is not an admonishment....we all make mistakes and have the same goal of increasing the value of the site and the quality of its information...
I'm not trying to "stir" the pot. But the post on Tightening and Clarifying Editorial Guidelines and headstones got me wondering, about the publication guidelines. I'm fairly new and have posted under thirty markers. But I think over a year ago. I wondered if the Simon Boliver statue in New Orleans qualified as a marker.
See https://theclio.com/entry/11976
Merriam Webster defines historical as a: of, relating to, or having the character of history
Would a marker identifying an animal at a zoo qualify a historical marker?
See: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=190317
When it's just about the animal at the zoo. Not about civil rights, George Washington visited here etc...
The Bolivar statue serves as a war memorial rather than as a historical marker. Simon Bolivar was a general and statues of him serve as war memorials as do memorials for George Washington and Joan of Arc.
As far as animals at zoos (and that submission was my own)—interpretive markers at zoos can in fact serve as historical markers. Human interaction, both intentional and accidental, has affected populations of other species throughout the world, for better and worse. When a sign about a species shares its historical context, it definitely serves as a historical marker.
Here are a couple examples that are a bit less controversial in terms of whether they serve as historical markers: • the affect of DDT on the bald eagle population, and the efforts started to reverse its trend • the near extinction of the American bison and the efforts of zoos throughout the US, especially the Bronx Zoo, to reinvigorate the population
I think long and hard about markers at zoos before submitting them and recommend that others do the same.
If it’s a sign that merely describes an animal, it does not serve as a marker. If it gives insight into history, it does. See the Editorial Guidelines. ☺️ Marker in question
Concerning the Simon Bolivar monument in New Orleans, I have visited it and photographed it numerous times. The MAIN reason I have not posted it to the website, is because there is absolutely nothing historical on the monument other than his name. No dates, no nothing. If its going to be a stumbling block I'll happily add it, but I personally attempt to go for quality, rather than quantity. Not all of mine 100% adhere to editorial guidelines, but I try. Someone let me know if you want me to post it, all I have to do is find the photos. Scrambler
Well, my own thoughts go: • The Simon Bolivar statue is not a historical marker, but it is a war memorial. There’s different guidance around them. As such, it qualifies for the Database given our current setup. • We’re all volunteers here. It’s up to any individual to make their own choices about what they submit. • Quality definitely matters! And in my opinion this definitely serves as a war memorial.
Regarding the Maj. Gen. Frank Wheaton grave marker: Given the new guidelines for gravestones, I would not consider this a historical marker. However, I would accept it as a loosely defined war memorial since it carries the imprimatur of the State of Rhode Island.
We're fewer than a thousand entries away from a very significant milestone for database. At the current rate we should hit it
sometime in the next few weeks. The lucky correspondent who enters the 200,000th entry will receive a genuine imitation parchment certificate with a faux gold seal commemorating the feat.
We won't know which entry will be the 200,000th entry until maybe a week after it is published. This is because markers are published out of turn and what counts is when the submit button for it was first clicked, not when it was actually published. This is because the system stores entries by submit date and time, not the published date and time.
Until we came along, no one had ever counted the number of historical markers that had been erected, much less photographed and mapped them. I thought when I started the database that there could not be more than 100 thousand markers markers out there in the wild. Yet here we are approaching 200 thousand. And we're not slowing down: we published more than 500 new entries in the last 7 days.
And who is the "we" that are accomplishing this? We are you and the more than 6750 other contributing correspondents and 39 editors of the Historical Marker Database—volunteers all. What a team we make!
Two updates on this subject. First, I am real pleased to announce that Contributing Editor Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Lou
isiana has generously offered to send the correspondent who contributes the 200,000th marker a Cajun Gift Box with some of the products he sells online, free of charge and postage paid. He told me that the box will contain a bottle of his “Swamp Scum” small-batch hot sauce, Bayou Blend low sodium Cajun seasoning, and a 2 pound bag of Louisiana Popcorn Rice. He’ll mail out the gift box to the winner and I’ll mail out the genuine faux-parchment certificate I promised earlier.
Second, between what the marker counter is showing as I write this and the pending entry count, the winning entry will most likely be filed in the next hour or two, and most certainly before dawn tomorrow. We just won’t know which one until our editors whittle down the pending queue, and that could take a number of days. I’ll keep you posted!
The 200,000th was filed yesterday, and it may already be published, for all we know so far. As I am writing this there are just 31 pending entries to publish or reject before the actual 200,000th published entry can be determined. This is because the database orders entries by the date and time the Submit button is first clicked, not when it is published.
There is still some time to wait, as some of the pending entries have been put on hold by editors who have asked correspondents for some clarification or additional information.
My Grandfather was R. Gentry Wilson. A document in the Florence Times about Sweetwater area of Florence said he sold a business in Florence and moved to Red Boiling Springs to manage a resort. This would have been around 1900. I know nothing else about it and sure would like to find out.
I am sorry to say that I don't think we'll be able to help you. We work exclusively with historical markers—those signs and monuments typically on the side of the road that tell a little bit of history. We are not affiliated with historical societies or historical archives; everything we have is online on this website and you are welcome to search it.
We’re tightening guidelines for gravestones-as-historical-markers entries, adding requirements to National Register of Historic Places plaque entries, and clarifying what we mean by “war memorials.” Why? To make sure the database stays relevant to historical markers, to document the significance of a place that got registered, and to consolidate the way certain war memorials are shown.
Take a look at the new FAQ Nos. 40, 41, and 42. The aim is to provide more guidance while maintaining broad editorial guidelines in order to to protect the database from crowding and dilution, and to avoid disappointing readers who come upon a scant NRHP page hoping for more.
The question underlying our entry criteria continues to be: can that sign instantly enlighten the typical passersby about something or someone in history? If it can, we want to catalog it.
Very much appreciate these updates. I have a few questions about cemeteries and gravesites, related to some separate Civil War research I've been doing that recently led me to at least two GAR post memorials at a local cemetery. My personal opinion is that these should all qualify, since in many other towns these monuments would have ended up in public squares or something like that. But I also recognize that this is HMDB and not findagrave, so want to make sure before I go back to get enough to create new listings: --One GAR post dedicated a metal plaque to veterans who were members of the post who (and I'm kind of paraphrasing here) "died and are buried at this cemetery, and those who died and are buried elsewhere." I need to confirm this for certain, but I believe the plaque is on the side of a gravestone of a former post president, whose personal information is otherwise chiseled into the headstone like a normal grave. Many other post members are buried around the cemetery under their own individual headstones. The wording of the plaque does not seem to honor any comrades who, for instance, died during the war and thus never were able to join a GAR post. I can tell you that in my research I have learned that erecting this memorial was a major goal for this post, and fundraising for it is discussed in many of its annual reports as well as in contemporary newspaper articles. Does this qualify as a war memorial? --A different post from a different town placed its memorial in this cemetery, with its veterans buried in plots immediately nearby. The memorial has a somewhat interesting backstory, as it once featured an impressive statue of a Union soldier that was vandalized and then removed at some unknown point a long time ago. The base of the monument remains today, and it simply states the name of the post with no other identifying information. Would this qualify as a war memorial? --OK last but not least, one section of the cemetery devoted to military veterans includes a large plaque with the names of more than 100 former Union soldiers who are buried in this section. I need to do some research but I believe many of these men did not have in-ground markers when they were buried, and this was installed much later (almost certainly in the last 20 years) as a way to honor them. Would this one qualify?
Strictly speaking, every gravestone is a memorial to the person buried there, and I suppose every gravestone to someone who died in the line of duty, or someone who was a veteran of this or that war, is also an individual war memorial. But if we follow this line of thinking, we become a specialized Find-a-Grave.com.
So maybe what we really mean is that war memorial monuments and plaques qualify, even if they've been placed in a cemetery. So those Grand Army of the Republic monuments, even if the statue has disappeared, qualifies. Be sure to explain what you've found in your entry to give the naked slab of concrete some context, and to help the editor out so he or she does not reject your entry out of hand. Give your research a voice in the "Comments on the Marker Itself" and/or "Comments on the Subject" and/or an added commentary. And if you can find a vintage picture of the monument with its statue to upload, even better.
That list of names you mention is more problematic. Is it just a plain list of names and ranks, like a directory of who is buried there, or did they make it a memorial by indicating they were veterans of this or that war?
Our job is to put public history online, not to infer it or write it from scratch. We amplify what someone else said when they took the time to say so on a permanent sign or monument. If they did not take the time, effort and expense to do it, we can't do it for them. That's what blogs are for, and we are not a blog.
thank you! this is very helpful. This is the soldier's plaque in question. These are all Union veterans of the Civil War bu
t there is no rank or unit mentioned (nor for that matter what state they represented). On one hand it is quite literally serving the purpose of replacing headstones, albeit without dates or any other information. On the other hand, it does also reference their service to the country in the manner of a war monument you might find in a park. I'm fine either way... but will definitely track down these GAR Post monuments to add them!
This YouTube video is about 18 months old, but notes the long history of historical markers and their many iterations.
Th
The Mission of HMdB (faux marker).
e nearly 14 minute video, with almost 74K views, mentions HMdB and provides a link in the description. You may even recognize a marker you have photographed previously or stopped to view.
The Adjust Filters pop-up on search, location, topics, and series results now has an additional filter capability. You
can now also filter on a portion of the marker’s inscription text. With this filter you can filter for entries that have a matching string of characters anywhere in its text.
The Inscription Filter is a character-string filter. It is case-insensitive and accent-insensitive, but other than that it is an exact character-by-character match. If you filter for, for example, «Butler Ranch» and the text of the inscription was typed in with two spaces between «Butler» and «Ranch», it won't be found.
Because character-string searches are outrageously inefficient—meaning it takes our server a long time to thumb through each and every inscription in the results looking for a match—the filter will be grayed out if the results have more than 2000 entries. But there is a way around this limitation: filter for other things first. For example, if your results consists of entries from every state, filter for one state to get the count down, then add the inscription filter to that smaller result. After you are finished analyzing the results for one state, filter for the next state on your list, and so on.
What follows would be considered by most to be esoteric and/or boring, so I will understand if you stop right here and ignore it.
This new filter solves a problem I ran into when searching for National Register of Historic Places entries. (We have a series for these kind of markers, but it has not been kept up, hence the reason to search for them.)
All NRHP markers have the words "National Register of Historic Places" in their inscription. But when I typed that in to the search box, I ran into a search engine limitation. That phrase has a "noise" word: the word "of". The database's search engine won't index it because it is so common. Words like "the", "and", "of", and a hundred others like them would overwhelm the search index because they appear so often, so they are excluded. Because of this the system searched for pages that had both the phrase "national register" and the phrase "historic place", but not necessarily next to each other and in that order, and separated by the word "of". Because of this hobbled but lighting-fast method of searching, the results had too many false positives.
But now with the new filter, filtering that initial result with the character string "National Register of Historic Places" will get rid of the false positives.
So, you may ask, why insist on the extra step? Why not provide a character string search on the Searches page as an alternative way to search? The answer is, because the server can't handle the load. Thumbing through all 200,000 entries doing a character-by-character comparison will take a very long time. And just a few folks doing these time-consuming searches at the same time would bring everyone else's response time to a crawl. Reducing the resource-consuming string search to just a few hundred entries as a second step solves this problem.
I often use the filters searching on Keywords or a partial title. I limit the search to the state I think the marker is most
likely located. Question is does unchecking "Include War Memorials" help put less of a load on the server? Does it also place less of a load as the only filter on a full location search?
The load comes down to how many entries it ends up juggling. Microsoft's SQL Server ranks with the heavyweights in the industry, so it clever enough to whittle down the 200 thousand entries in the order that it thinks will be most efficient. So picking out just one state is probably first, and maybe tossing war memorials might be second. It knows its own limitations and makes the inefficient string search the last filter. Then it sorts the results, and finally, it selects the first 100 to show you.
By the way, you're not really further filtering the results. After presenting you results its done. It does not remember what it last did for you the next time you click for a new result. It runs each iteration from scratch, throwing all the filters you've indicated at it. Even when you just click on Next 100, it runs the whole search from scratch, then throws away the first 100 entries to show you the next 100, etc. That's why you notice things slowing down when you are asl for, say, entries 1501 through 1600.
I have been working on a map project to locate all the Tuskegee Airmen sites and also black aviation-related places. A friend pointed me in your direction and it has been a gold mine. Thank you. —Henderson Smith III, Lt Col, Ret USAF. Black Aviation
Here’s one more you may want to add. TracesofWar.com has an article on Photo report inauguration of the Tuskegee Airmen monument near Ramitelli, Italy - detailing the unveiling in July, 2023, of a new monument in Italy honoring the Tuskegee Airmen. The location is a bit of a drive for most of us, but who knows, maybe someday somebody will get there and get us the pictures to get it into our database.
For those of you who may not be aware of the Traces of War organization, they are based in the Netherlands and specialize in war memorials and sites, in the broadest of senses. They have a huge database, in some senses similar to our own, and can be useful if one wishes to locate war memorials. The bulk of their collection is in Europe, but their scope is worldwide and they list plenty of American memorials. You can reach their database through the “Sights” link. I recommend them highly.
Great resource, I am hoping to visit Italy again and make a trip to the city and the old base. Thank you for the link to the other site, I will explore it for Tuskegee Airmen-related locations. Black Aviation Map