Historical Marker Program

The Kentucky Historical Marker Program, administered by the Kentucky Historical Society in cooperation with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, commemorates historical sites, events, and personalities throughout the commonwealth.

Now Available: KHS's
"ExploreKYHistory" smartphone application

KHS is connecting our communities' historical markers in a statewide story, and delivering it directly to your phone!

“ExploreKYHistory,” is available now in both Google Play and iTunes application stores.

The app combines the history behind each community-driven historical marker, related items in the KHS collections and user-submitted images and stories into mapped points of interest. Related historical markers across the Commonwealth are then grouped together into tours.

The first available tour was Civil War related. War of 1812, Abraham Lincoln, University Kentucky, Danville, Slavery and Emancipation in Kentucky, and House Museum tours are now available as well.

KHS connects communities further by eliciting participation from local historical societies and Kentucky history enthusiasts like you!

More details at explorekyhistory.ky.gov.

Communities are now able to submit images and stories for their own regional and thematic tours! Tours must be comprised of at least ten historical markers. Completed applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. Download the ExploreKYHistory Community Tour application (PDF) and submit all materials on a CD-ROM or a flash drive to:

ExploreKYHistory Application
c/o Stuart Sanders
Kentucky Historical Society
100 West Broadway
Frankfort, KY 40601


KHS Historical Marker Program

The markers are on-the-spot history lessons that add drama and interest to the countryside for native Kentuckians as well as tourists. Through this program, the wealth of Kentucky history is made accessible to the public as they travel along the state's roadways.

The goal of the Kentucky Historical Marker Program is to connect events and personalities with their place, to bring the past to life, and to increase the awareness of what we owe to those who came before us. The subjects of the more than 2000 markers in Kentucky are varied. There are markers that tell of a duel of honor, a seven-year-old boy who served as a drummer in the Revolutionary War, and the 1937 Ohio River flood. Others highlight moonlight schools that were established to combat illiteracy, an Indian academy and the first state-supported school for the hearing-impaired in the U.S.

Learn more about Kentucky historical markers throughout the state by exploring our searchable marker database or by reading Roadside History: A Guide to Kentucky Highway Markers (2002). If you would like to purchase a copy, you can contact the University Press of Kentucky at 800-839-6855 or order online. You can also purchase a copy from the 1792 Store at the Kentucky Historical Society's Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History at 100 West Broadway, Frankfort, KY.

2013 Historical Marker application


For more information, please contact:

Becky Riddle
Kentucky Historical Marker Program Coordinator
502-564-1792 ext. 4474
becky.riddle@ky.gov