New historical markers on pause due to supply chain woes

Stroll the streets of Center City and snippets of history seem to leap out from every block.

The site where America’s oldest surviving photograph was taken on Chestnut Street, or the former lunch counter where one of the country’s earliest LGBT sit-ins took place at 17th and Latimer; the house on Market Street where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence or the block of North 15th Street that once housed a thriving silent movie studio.

History marches on. Its signposts, however, have been on hiatus for nearly six months.

In November, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) announced that it was temporarily pausing its historical marker program, meaning that Pennsylvanians won’t see any of those iconic blue and gold markers cropping up anytime soon.

The PHMC blames supply chain disruptions. Sewah Studios, the Ohio company that fabricates the markers, has suffered shortages that make the timely delivery of new markers unfeasible. In addition, the pandemic caused a number of marker dedications to be postponed over the last three years, leaving the PHMC with a backlog.

More than 2,500 of the aluminum markers have been installed since the program was launched in 1946, with more than 300 in the city of Philadelphia. Nominations have been stalled since December 2022, when 37 markers were approved. Eleven of those are planned for Philly, including guideposts for the Mount Pleasant Mansion in Fairmount Park, Quaker novelist and editor Charles Brockden Brown, jazz legend Lee Morgan, and Germantown’s Wyck House and Garden.

“PHMC’s historical markers celebrate the people, places, and events that shaped Pennsylvania,” spokesperson Howard Pollman said. “They are viewed as a source of pride for communities and serve as jumping-off points for an exploration of history. It’s hoped that these familiar blue-and-gold markers will encourage people to find out more about the subjects honored and further their own exploration of Pennsylvania history.”

The long-delayed dedications are slated to resume in June, beginning with a ceremony at Fighter’s Heaven, Muhammad Ali’s former training camp in Schuylkill County. In the meantime, the commission is focusing on repairing and maintaining damaged markers.

The delays are also preventing new names and events from being added to the roster of notables commemorated by the markers, though the PHMC says it’s taking advantage of the downtime.

“The hiatus gives PHMC a chance to get caught up on the backlog of marker dedications that were paused during the pandemic,” said Pollman. “It has also given the program the opportunity to organize replacements for missing markers and focus more strongly on the cyclical and emergency maintenance of existing markers.”