The Wiregrass Archives at Troy University-Dothan recently completed the Alabama Historical Marker Digital Enhancement Project, a grant-funded project that created a public-facing digital map for historical markers across the state.

A partnership between the Alabama Historical Association Marker Committee, Alabama Heritage magazine and the Encyclopedia of Alabama, the project created a digital map of 218 Alabama Historical Association markers in Jefferson, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa counties.  

Besides pinning the markers by location, the project added information about each marker’s title, location, text, image and sponsors. Project assistant Dr. Katie Beasley located Encyclopedia of Alabama articles for 81 markers and Alabama Heritage articles for 36. 

“The project’s real mission was to link as many markers as possible to digitally available articles from the Encyclopedia of Alabama and Alabama Heritage magazine that provide readers with information beyond each marker’s text,” said Dr. Marty Olliff, director of the Wiregrass Archives and principal investigator for the project.

Now that the initial phase of the project is complete, the group will add the remaining 600 Alabama Historical Association markers as soon as possible. Ultimately, the goal is to enhance tourism and, particularly, K-12 social studies education.

“This digital map provides a tool that aligns with the newly devised Alabama Course of Study in Social Studies,” Olliff said. “It combines geographic and historical information, but also leads students into thinking beyond the marker to the stories historical markers merely allude to.  The Alabama Course of Study introduced a new historical methods course for high school, and the enhanced digital map of markers opens a world of research possibilities.”

The Project map is available to the public through the Alabama Historical Association Marker Committee webpage, https://www.alabamahistory.net/historical-markers-index.

This project was funded by grants from the Alabama Humanities Alliance and the Alabama Historical Association.