How We Located the Markers
This website has its origins in the research for Memory Wars: Settlers and Natives Remember Washington’s Sullivan Expedition (2023, University of Nebraska Press). This book explores the origins of the Sullivan commemorative complex, examines how the Sullivan story is expressed by public history and in everyday talk, and contrasts these perspectives with that expressed at Haudenosaunee cultural centers [link to Nebraska here?}
A first stage in preparing Memory Wars was to develop a sense of the scale and scope of the Sullivan commemorative complex. Because markers were established by different entities at different times, there is no one database or volume that includes all of the monuments and markers. Smith compiled the list found on this website by extensive road trips since 2013; from various archival sources; and databases of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the Bradford County Historical Society, the Association of Public Historians of New York State, and the Historical Marker Database website. The resulting dataset was far too extensive to be incorporated in full in the Memory Wars volume, and this website can be seen as a companion project.
Lafayette College students working with A. Lynn Smith helped confirm the texts found in archival sources and cross check with actual markers that we found in situ. All marker texts have been verified in this way, and locations checked in person or via Google Earth.