Behind the Markers

Historical markers are often where most Texans encounter history. Markers stand along highways, in town squares, at courthouses, schools, cemeteries, and historic sites—inviting us to stop, read, and ask what happened here. But a marker can only tell so much. Limited by space and shaped by the time in which it was written, it may leave out important context, newer scholarship, overlooked voices, or the broader story needed to fully understand the past.

With that in mind, the Alliance for Texas is undertaking a bold project – one that will put our mission to focus on the future of Texas’s past in the public eye.

Our project, Behind the Markers, is a long-term public-history initiative by the Alliance for Texas History that extends our mission to a broader statewide audience. Using Texas Historical Commission marker data as a foundation, the project will create online, reviewed digital entries that extend the official marker inscription with new interpretation, corrections, citations, multimedia materials, and links to scholarship.

Behind the Markers builds on the value of those markers by extending their stories into a digital space where history can be explored in greater depth. The project will connect the public with reliable scholarship, primary sources, photographs, maps, documents, and multiple perspectives that simply cannot fit on a roadside sign. The goal is not to replace historical markers, but to make them more useful—as gateways to deeper discovery.

(Sample Screen from EastTexasHistory.org / Jeff Littlejohn, Sam Houston State University)

Our plan is based on Curatescape, a map-based, mobile-friendly, digital platform. Curatescape offers the features we need, including an interactive map, location-aware recommendations, tours, search and browsing, multimedia, and other public-facing advantages. Over forty universities, heritage preservation organizations, historical societies, and museums have adopted Curatescape.

The screen sample shown is from www.easttexashistory.org, developed in Curatescape by Dr. Jeffrey Littlejohn at Sam Houston State University. This item on their site is very similar to what we envision for Behind the Markers. You can view this marker story at: https://easttexashistory.org/items/show/139.

A Behind the Markers Committee, chaired by Dr. Lindsey Passenger Wieck of St. Mary’s University, has been formed to define the project goals, begin work on submission and editorial guidelines, and plan future development. Their Phase 1 work will culminate with a prototype demonstration at our Annual Conference in May 2027. Our Finance Committee is also considering funding options for years two and three. To succeed, the project will require partnerships with universities, county historical commissions, museums, and other history organizations. We invite institutions interested in becoming an institutional partner in this project to reach out to us at contact@atxh.org.

We expect the Behind the Markers project to establish the Alliance for Texas History as a trusted public resource for accurate, accessible Texas history.