Stratford, Virginia

Stratford Hall Plantation:  Rarely does a mill pond get a historical marker of its own.  Usually, the mill itself gets all the attention.  That's why it's refreshing to see a marker right beside the pond  that was crucial to the mill's operation.  It's also refreshing to see so much geography in the marker's text.  [2010]

Stratford, Virginia

Stratford Hall Plantation:  At Stratford Hall was born Robert E. Lee:  Don't you think his family plantation deserves a marker of its own?  Virginia's Northern Neck could easily market itself as the birthplace of American leadership.  Take that theme and go about re-designing the peninsula's historical marker collection.  [2010]

Mt. Vernon, Virginia

Too Much History:   All you can say is that it's the Virginia way.  When you cross the Virginia line, get ready to play Mussorgski's 'Pictures at an Exhibition.'  We don't have roadside markers, we have roadside galleries.  [2011]

New Kent, Virginia

Too Much History:   Don't even bother to read them.  The message is in their number.  What kind of a state has so much history it has to parade its markers along its verges in groups of five?  Virginia suffers from so much history, it doesn't know what to do with it all.  [1985]

Woodbridge, Virginia

Too Much History:   Geographers would attribute this example of placard proximity to agglomeration economies.  What economy is achieved?  You can read three markers with only one stop of the car.  Needless to say, you couldn't read all three (or even one) on a pass-by.  [2011]

Essington, Pennsylvania

Eternal Life on the Landscape:  Governor of New Sweden, Johann Printz, was the William Penn of his time.  With a full-form statue, Printz takes his place as one of the main characters in the European colonization of the Atlantic seaboard.  The text beneath his feet reads like a resume for his next position.  [2008]

London, England

Eternal Life on the Landscape:  Paul Julius Reuter, founder of the eponymous news agency, died in 1899, but a full bust in front of London's Royal Exchange keeps his memory alive.  His pioneering work in gathering and transmitting news turned heads towards London and helped to make it the city it is today.  [2009]

Washington, DC

Eternal Life on the Landscape:  The name is Lajos Kossuth, and his visage leaps off the wall of the Kossuth House in a bas relief sculpture.  From his niche, 'the father of Hungarian democarcy' has been watching over the Dupont Circle neighborhood since the 1930s.  Democracy has a history and Kossuth is part of it.  [2012]

New York, New York

Eternal Life on the Landscape: On the landscape, immortality comes closer when a picture supplements the name.  Richard Tucker Park, on Broadway, honors the legacy of a world-class tenor in a world-class city.  It is so American to extol individual achievement in our historical marker programs.  [2012]

Cincinnati, Ohio

Eternal Life on the Landscape:  Hank Williams will live forever in downtown Cincinnati, where "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" was recorded at the Herzog.  Erecting a historical marker is one way we keep people around long after they have passed.  Of course, this isn't the only marker on which Williams' name appears.  [2012]

London, England

Tower Hill Sundial:  The Wooden O is what Shakespeare called the Globe Theatre.  Now, it has been commemorated under foot in London's Bronze O, the outer ring of the Tower Hill Sundial.  Roadside markers present "history in a square."  Here's variation on a theme:  history in an O.  [2009]

London, England

Tower Hill Sundial:  Laid into the outer rim of the sundial are bas reliefs that mark events in London's history.  The original city walls were completed in 220 AD and restored in 896.  Only one thing happened in between:  St. Paul's was built.  Who chooses what to memorialize on a timeline like this?  [2009]

London, England

Tower Hill Sundial:  Two time tracks rim the Tower Hill Sundial: one marks the hours (Roman numerals) and one marks the centuries (bronze bas reliefs).  London Transport (see the Underground marker?) unveiled the timepiece in 1992.  Around its base are bronze bas reliefs that depict, century by century,  the evolution of the city's landscape. The full chronology is laid out at <http://www.streetsensation.co.uk/history/sundial.htm> [2009]

Whangarei, New Zealand

Look Down:   Now commemorated in a plaza-side plaque are the three anchors of social life in the 19th century.  Here is the ecclesiastical family that served the first families of Whangarei: the Church of England for the English, the Presbyterian Church for the Scots, and the Methodist Church for the Welsh.  [2011]

Whangarei, New Zealand

Look Down:  One of the plaques under foot in Whangarei's city centre is a reproduction of the plan for creating a new town to the north of Auckland.  The date was 1866.  Notice the old spelling: Wangarei.  A primary source, lifted from the archives, has been made available for everyone to see.  [2011]

Whangarei, New Zealand

Look Down:  Whangarei's city centre has been turned into a modern pedestrian precinct.  What makes the urban landscape unique, however, is the history under foot.  Documents, scenes, and historical facts from Whangarei's past are molded into the plaques at the plaza's edge.  It's like a short course on the city's evolution.  ]2011]

Southampton, England

Gates and Walls:  No wall in this picture.  But, brick lineations under foot are used  to tell a story that began with the Norman invasion.  Using words, remanants of the past, and and crafty geometry, Southampton has made its history public and reduced the monopoly of professional historians.  [2011] 

Southampton, England

Gates and Walls:  Southampton was heavily fortified, and the North Town Wall has survived.  The placard, placed under authority of the City of Southampton, provides just enough information for the reader to be impressed with the city's history.  [2011]

Southampton, England

Gates and Walls:  Southampton is lucky to have its medieval main gain, the Bargate.  Its marker is perfectly positioned to facilitate a visual comparison between yesterday and today.  How much less effective would the photograph be if the placard were located in the pedestrian passageway or on an outside wall?  [2011]

Venice, Florida

History Under Foot:  Plazas as well as sidewalks provide opportunities to help the public visualize their place in the world: in this case, the world of urban planning.  The map used to lay out Venice in the 1920s has become a permanent part of the city's narrative, thanks to the power of one medallion.  [2009]

Sydney, New South Wales

History Under Foot:  To Australians, wool was the golden fleece.  The market was in England, but the trade was localized here on Sydney's Macquarie Street.  The sidewalk medallion makes it possible to turn back the pages of history in the context of a real place.  And, it occupies no space at all.  [2006]

Denver, Colorado

History Under Foot:  On pavements, historical markers can take the form of medallions and be just as effective as roadside placards.  The first traffic signal with a pedestrian walk component was installed (a) 30, (b) 60, (c) 90 years ago.  Just read what's under foot in Denver to find out.  Why waste any open space?  [2005]

Washington, DC

Federal Triangle Heritage Trail:  Here is the verso of the marker at Stop 11 in front of the Old Post Office Building, the former seat of the Post Office Department.  This side carries a map showing Heritage Trail markers and an iconic photograph right out of the archives.  [2012]

Washington, DC

Federal Triangle Heritage Trail:  While you are waiting in line to get into the National Archives, you can catch a glimpse of the Archives being built.  It's just too bad the crowds aren't lining up at the historical marker.  They are virtually all looking down at their iphones (which is where the markers of the future will be).  [2012]

Washington, DC

Federal Triangle Heritage Trail:  A string of 16 two-sided, free-standing placards presents the history of DC's Federal Triangle.  Stop 3 puts you in eye-shot of the FBI and introduces you to J. Edgar Hoover.  The theme of all these markers is landscape change.  [2012]

Purcellville, Virginia

Here, Near, and Far:  So, the roots of air travel are really in Virginia.  Take that North Carolina and Ohio!  But, this marker should be in Hillsboro not six miles away.  Wright?  [2006]

Sevierville, Tennessee

Here, Near, and Far:  The covered bridge is not here.  It is nearby, though:  400 yards south.  And, if you are intrigued enough by the text, you might follow the trail downhill to see a bit of history.  Actually, there is precious little information about the the bridge's history on this marker; mostly glorifies the DAR.  [2009]

Burlington, North Carolina

Here, Near, and Far:  Burlington was born when the railroad came through in the 1850s and needed a company maintenance shop.  Here, right on this spot, Company Shops was located.  That was Burlington's original name:  Company Shops.  [2006]

Jekyll Island, Georgia

Not Here, But There:  Another pointing arrow.  This one seems to say:  "Look over there."  Its roadside home is right next to the burial ground.  Raise your hand if you think you could communicate all that information in about half as many words.  [2010]

Finzel, Maryland

Not Here, But There:  Savage River Camp wasn't here; it was over there . . .  somewhere, I guess.  The geography remains unclear, and the arrow doesn't help.  Maybe the marker is in the wrong place.  But, maybe if it were in the right place, there would be no passers-by to read it.  What a quandary.  [2010]

San Diego, California

The First of Them All: If you can't be the first in the nation or the state, maybe you can be the first in the county.  Examine how this 'first' is contextualized geographically.  In 1865, the county was bigger than three New England states.  Is that a put-down of New England or just a way of enlarging the school's importance?  [2007]

Trenton, New Jersey

The First of Them All:   If you can't be the first in the nation or the state, maybe you can be the first in the city.  Here's the site of Trenton's first synagogue, attested by the Har Sinai Temple Centennial Committee.  The cemetery association gave life to the Hebrew community of Trenton.  What irony!  [2006]

Eldorado, Ontario, Canada

The First of Them All:  If you can't be first in the nation, you can at least be first in the province.  What ties the present to the past, though, is the place-name Eldorado.  El Dorado was the "city of gold" sought since the 1500s.  Today, Canadian firms, including El Dorado Gold, dominate the world's gold mining industry.  [2002]

Galesville, Maryland

The First of Them All: If you can't be first in the nation, you can at least be first in the state.  What did Galesville have before anyone else in Maryland?  The first General Meeting of Friends.  That almost begs for some sloganeering:  "Come visit your oldest friends in Galesville."  [2008]

Lumberton, North Carolina

The First of Them All:  Memo to Lumberton:  don't forget to celebrate the centennial, 1912-2012, of this important American first for the public sector.  On the other hand, perhaps North Carolina should decommission this marker since it seems to point toward a role for government in national health care.  [2011]

Washington, Virginia

The First of Them All:  In America, it's almost an obsession.  Being first, that is.  Perhaps it is born of an inferiority complex from the earliest days of European settlement when the first of everything happened in the "old world."  [2010]