|
The State Historic Marker Program began in 1926 as a program
of the State Education Department to commemorate the
Sequicentennial of the American Revolution. Over 2,800 of the small,
cast iron site markers (left) were erected statewide during the duration
of this program (1926-1939). In spite of loss of public funding, this
initiative to identify and interpret local historic sites, including
many that survive only in archeological form, has continued to be an
important aspect of local historic preservation efforts to this day.
More information about the program is available on our website.
By the time a new State Historic Marker Program was established in the
1960s, and public funding was restored, the nature of automobile travel had changed.
With new high-speed cars and increasing traffic, it was no longer considered safe to
erect little historic signs along the edge of the highway. Stopping to read them
was a risky business.
 |
| One of the large regional markers erected at a
roadside rest area in the Mohawk Valley. |
It was decided that funding would only be applied to larger, more detailed signs placed in
various types of rest areas, including those along the New York State Thruway, where motorists
could pull off the highway, park, and read the signs safely at their leisure. The
installation of these signs in the mid-1960s was an early example of
providing cultural information in a natural setting along major travel routes - a pattern
for the "heritage tourism" programs becoming popular today.
 But by placing these large signs only in available rest areas and roadside
pull-offs, historians in the Education Department could not identify particular sites the
way the smaller roadside markers had decades before. They had to present broadly written
descriptions of regional history; often refering to places and events many miles away from the
location where the visitor stood reading the sign.
In concert with the smaller, site-specific roadside markers, these regional
descriptions provided a unique educational experience for the traveler stopping to read them. At the rest
area they received a quick introduction to a few of the salient features about the locality where they
were. And by following the side roads and byways of the region, they could encounter some of the hundreds of
site markers placed in front of individual sites.
The texts of these large format rest area markers provide a summary overview of
New York State history, focused on the regional differences that make the state diverse and
interesting. That is why a booklet containing the full text of all the rest area markers was published
in 1970 as Historical Area Markers of New York State, and copies can still be purchased from the State Museum Publications Unit. This website
is based on the content of that booklet.
GO TO MARKER TEXT INVENTORY
For more information...
If you have questions, or wish to obtain more detailed information about this subject,
please contact:
George Hamell
Email:ghamell2@mail.nysed.gov |
