iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 2h

With all the Babyface talk today I’ll note: David Letterman lobbied on his show but failed to get his hometown Interstate 465 in Indianapolis named after him. But Naptown’s own Babyface got Interstate 65 in the city named after him without even asking in 1999.

Babyface posing by the Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds Highway sign on Interstate 65 in Indianapolis. Picture taken from Facebook.

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 2h

After 1 game, it’s Industry 1, Agriculture 0

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 3h

Today’s the grand opening of the new Jim Crow Museum at Michigan’s Ferris State U. Founder, and school diversity and inclusion veep, David Pilgrim grew up going to segregated Black schools in Alabama. His collection of racist objects is the basis of the museum. spectrumlocalnews.com/mi/michigan/...

spectrumlocalnews.com

Ferris State Opens New $22M Jim Crow Museum

Ferris State University is opening a new $22 million Jim Crow Museum — 30,000 artifacts of racist memorabilia

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Jacob Pomrenke @buckweaver.bsky.social · 4h

Today SABR launched an incredible new book and companion website on Baseball at Manzanar: How We Played the Game, 1942-1945. It’s the story of 120,000 Japanese Americans who were removed from their homes after Pearl Harbor and forced to live at remote incarceration camps: sabr.org/baseball-at-...

Cover image for SABR’s “Baseball at Manzanar: How We Played the Game, 1942-1945,” edited by Russ Speiller and James Forr.

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McKie's Disc Jockey Show Lounge @mckiesdjlounge.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Pour some out for the steamers Philip R Clarke & Arthur M Anderson, some of the oldest freighters on the Great Lakes, now in long-term layup in Toledo, neither expected to sail again. The Anderson was the last ship in contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald. Photos by Lou Gerard & Altafest.

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 16h

“Stumbling stones” in Arlington, Va., show the names of enslaved people on the sidewalks in front of where they were enslaved. The idea came from a similar project in Germany where small plaques were placed in front of the homes of those murdered in the Holocaust enslavedarl.org/s/memorializ...

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 5h

It’s amazing how something so everyday in its present becomes so fascinating many years later.

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Terry Buckalew @terrybuckalew.bsky.social · 6h

The Elaine, Arkansas Massacre began September 30, 1919. Multi-day conflict arose after local black sharecroppers attempted to form a Union. Many* black people killed by white people. *widely varying estimates (Terry Buckalew photos from Elaine 2005-2010) share.google/Uy1VrBOc2BxC...

Lee’s Grocery, now the Elaine Cultural Center

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 6h

In 2016 Dick Van Dyke returned to his hometown of Danville, Illinois, when he heard his childhood home was threatened with destruction. Yesterday, his foundation apparently concluding the home wasn’t salvageable, the city tore it down. As of yet, no marker at the property. youtu.be/MMGgvsGIdPQ?...

youtu.be

City of Danville demolishes childhood home of Dick Van Dyke

YouTube video by WCIA News

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 16h

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Connie Walker @conniewalker.bsky.social · 18h

It's taken a minute but I'm excited to tell you about a new project and a new podcast (eventually). In many ways, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s was just the beginning…. More here: contactingconnie.substack.com/p/who-is-pro...

contactingconnie.substack.com

Who is protected by the destruction of Indian Residential School records?

“There’s not a single Indigenous person in Canada, who has not been touched by the legacy of Residential Schools.” - Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

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Eric Freeman @freemaneric.bsky.social · 21h

I probably won’t see Digger but it would’ve been an A+ Letterman topic. “Hey Paul, uh, you seen Digger?” etc.

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 21h

“Industry” gets the White Sox, “Agriculture” gets the Cubs for the MLB playoffs (Decorated statues from the Chicago Board of Trade Building demolished in 1929, brought out of the DuPage County Forest Preserve District back to LaSalle Street in 2005 — the year the White Sox won the World Series)

“Industry” statue in Chicago’s LaSalle Street Plaza, decorated with White Sox pennants

“Agriculture” statue decorated with a Cubs jersey at LaSalle Street Plaza, Chicago

Historical marker with the statues at LaSalle Street Plaza. It reads:

The Chicago Board of Trade's Statues Symbolizing Agriculture and Industry

These two statues, one symbolizing agriculture and the other industry, once stood over the main entrance of the Board of Trade Building built in 1885. The statues greeted commodity traders and the public for 45 years. Thought lost forever when the building was demolished in 1929 to make way for the exchange's current Art Deco structure, in 2005 the statues were graciously returned to their origins through the generosity and goodwill of the DuPage County Forest Preserve District.

Forest Preserve District officials uncovered the twelve-foot, five and one-half ton granite statues at Hidden Lake Forest Preserve near Downers Grove, Illinois in 1978. The forest preserve was the former estate of Arthur Cutten, a prominent Chicago Board of Trade speculator of the early 1900's. How the statues made the journey from LaSalle Street to the Cutten estate is a mystery. /
Now a part of the LaSalle Street Plaza, the exchange's symbolic statues serve as daily reminders of the vitality and creativity that fuel the growth of the city of Chicago and the Chicago Board of Trade.

Rededicated June 9, 2005 by the Chicago Board of Trade

Decorated Industry and Agriculture statues, Chicago

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It was the old, haggard Henry Clay, not the young, dashing Clay of 1824, confronted during an 1842 pre-campaign speech in Richmond, Ind., by a Quaker who demanded he free his slaves. The Kiwanis Club in 1921 reports despite Clay’s “eloquent reply” this was a big step toward Clay’s 1844 loss.

Historical marker in Richmond, Indiana. It reads:

On October First, 1842, in what was then an open tract in this city square. Henry Clay, the leader of the Whig Party, delivered an address to an immense multitude and Hiram Mendenhall, a Quaker abolitionist, presented to him on behalf of the Indiana Anti-Slavery Society, a numerously signed petition, asking him to free his slaves. Clay, in an eloquent reply, criticised this act as a breach of hospitality, described the difficulties and perils of immediate emancipation and advised Mendenhall to begin his work of benevolence at home. Clay’s rejoinder was… overwhelmingly applauded, yet the incident was afterwards an important factor… in the defeat of Clay for the presidency in 1844; and in the spread of the anti-slavery sentiment which contributed to the dissolution of the Whig Party, the organization of the Republican Party and finally to the Civil War and ultimate emancipation

Erected 1921 by Richmond Kiwanis Club.

Mendenhall/Clay confrontation historical marker in front of Seton Catholic School in Richmond, Indiana.

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Thanks for the tip @karenrussell.bsky.social! This Wagon Road marker in eastern Montana is, as usual, white-centered, though it at least acknowledges the trail had long ago been blazed by indigenous populations, whom the US government forced out “by trick or treaty.”

Wagon Road historical marker in Fallon County, Montana. It reads:

Around these gumbo buttes and across these ridges and valleys, an old road wended its way between Fort Abraham Lincoln on the Missouri River in Dakota Territory and Fort Keogh on the Yellowstone River in Montana. Although the Indians blazed the trail generations ago, it was not until railroad surveyors utilized it shortly after the Civil War that it saw heavy use by non- Indians. Government mail stages, heavily-loaded freight wagons destined for forts Keogh and Custer, covered wagons, buffalo hunters, soldiers, and people searching for homes, wealth, or adventure plodded along this meandering trail after the end of the Great Sioux War in 1877. In 1887, one freight train of 95 wagons, each drawn by 4 to 6 horses or mules, and each loaded with supplies of all kinds made up the largest known train to make the trip. All were constantly watched and harassed by the Indians, whose lands and way of life were, by trick and treaty, being forever forced from them. With the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and also the fences by the homesteaders, the trail was abandoned. A few grassy ruts may be seen on the ridge to the southwest.

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I love that this covered bridge has two historical markers: - One about its history as a toll bridge - One about how French General Lafayette, our Revolutionary War best bud, visited a previous version of the bridge

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Someone set afire a 3D-printed statue of President Benjamin Harrison at his home/museum in Indianapolis (see markers below). I can’t believe anyone feels so passionate about Harrison to set him on fire. But I also didn’t figure anyone would bother to 3-D print him www.wishtv.com/news/crime-w...

wishtv.com

Arson investigation underway after Benjamin Harrison statue destroyed by fire

INDIANAPOLIS — An arsonist destroyed a new piece of public art at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site early Sunday, less than two weeks after its installation. Fire consumed the life-size, 5-foot-...

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Bears fans like to dress up like da coach Mike Ditka but more should consider cosplaying as Neill Armstrong

Getty images shot of former Chicago Bears coach Neill Armstrong

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Mount St. Helens Archive @mountsthelens1980.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Newspapers dot com has been very, very good to me — but even it has its limits. Bless you, microfilm. "A friend indeed."

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I did not know that’s where the term “sounding board” came from

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King Algamemnon @adamrothman.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

US history book alert 🚨🗃 American Pogroms: How Forgotten Massacres Shape America by Daniel Byman global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Daniel Byman
American Pogroms: How Forgotten Massacres Shape America

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Nixon’s Quaker influence came from his mother, among the many members of the Society of Friends to settle in Indiana in the 1800s. Where I’m from, Carmel, was founded by Quakers in the 1830s as Bethlehem. My prom date’s guardians were Quaker ministers. indyencyclopedia.org/society-of-f...

indyencyclopedia.org

Society Of Friends (Quakers) - Encyclopedia of Indianapolis

The Quakers are among the few religious sects with roots in the turmoil of the English Revolution of the 1640s… Read More »Society Of Friends (Quakers)

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Shooti @bambooshooti.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

After the War of 1812, Appleseed continued to expand his business across Ohio and Indiana, managing dozens of fenced-in nurseries to help settlers claim land. He died on March 18, 1845, in Fort Wayne, Ind., leaving an estate of more than 1,200 acres of prime nursery land to his sister. /8

Disputed possible gravesite of Johnny Appleseed. Appleseed never married and had no children of his own, but he came from a large family and maintained close connections with his relatives throughout his life. Though he is often pictured as a lone drifter, he actually started his frontier journey with his 11-year-old half-brother, Nathaniel Cooley Chapman. The two brothers lived a nomadic lifestyle together for more than a decade. In 1805, their father packed up the rest of the stepfamily and moved west to Ohio to join them. Once the family arrived, the younger Nathaniel settled down to farm with their father, while John kept moving further west alone. Later in life, when old age began catching up with him, John moved back in with his brother Nathaniel’s family in Ohio for a period. When he died in 1845, he left his sprawling estate of roughly 1,200 acres of nurseries to his sister, Persis Broom (sometimes cited as his half-sister). Photo credit: Kevin M. Brooks.

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A historical marker for a Virginia school with Jim Crow roots joins many markers for segregated schools, as more go up. As for other markers, here’s why: “What we want them to know is that there was an African-American segregated high school in Southern Albemarle.” www.29news.com/2026/09/27/h...

29news.com

Historical marker unveiled for B.F. Yancey Elementary and Esmont High School

A historical marker honoring B.F. Yancey Elementary School and Esmont High School was unveiled Sunday afternoon in southern Albemarle County.

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SempaiScuba @sempaiscuba.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

28 September 1928: Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin in a mould later identified as Penicillium notatum. #History #medicine

Photograph of Alexander Fleming in his laboratory.

Commemorative plaque at St. Mary's hospital which reads: "Sir Alexander Fleming 1881-1955 discovered penicillin in the second storey room above this plaque"

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Porter County, Indiana, already remembers the pedestrian hit by a train, as noted below. There’s a memorial in Chesterton to people killed at railroad crossings. It’s near a crossing that sees 85 trains a day, and could get more. www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/01/r...

Memorial boulder in Chesterton, Indiana, remembering people killed at railroad crossings.

Plaque in Chesterton, Indiana. It reads:

In loving memory of those who died at railroad crossings in Porter County.

Donated by White-Love Funeral Home, John Dillie & Sons Construction, Chesterton Junior Women’s Club

Railroad crossing near Chesterton’s memorial to those killed at train crossings. It’s one of 11 in Chesterton and neighboring Portage, Indiana.

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A thread worth diving into — there’s a lot here!

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Opelousas massacre, in which white mobs killed as many as 250 Black people, was the first of a wave of racist intimidation that, being left unchecked, undid Reconstruction after the Civil War. I can’t find any markers or memorials acknowledging it. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/stor...

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My bumper magnet isn’t quite as spicy, but same message @hmdb.org

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Just like how there’s a town in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, called Belgium that was settled by Luxembourgers

Wisconsin’s Luxembourgers historical marker in Belgium, Wisconsin. It reads:

Many of northeastern Ozaukee County’s prosperous farms, fieldstone houses and outbuildings, and large village churches are characteristic of the Luxembourg immigrant settlement patterns in the area. Beginning in 1845, inexpensive land brought Luxembourgers to the region where they purchased land in lots of 40 acres or less, vast acreage compared to the small tilled plots in Luxembourg. By the late 19th century at least 250 Luxembourger families were living in the communities of Belgium, Fredonia, Holy Cross, Lake Church, Waubeka, and Port Washington and nearby Dacada, making this area a center of Luxembourg settlement in the United States.

Erected 1998 by State Historical Society of Wisconsin

Peter Thein Avenue marker on the grounds of the Luxembourg American Cultural Society in Belgium, Wisconsin. It reads:

Peter Joseph Thein was a proud Luxembourger. He was the Grandson of John Peter Thein, a blacksmith who emigrated from Bech, Luxembourg to New Trier, Minnesota in 1854. Peter was a self-made man with a very strong religious faith. This faith guided him through his many business interests - which included land development, farming and banking - along with his Thein Well Company - which his father Eugene started in 1893.

Peter and Gertrude (Krommen) Thein were blessed with 64 years of marriage and raised 13 children - 8 girls and 5 boys. Peter enjoyed flying small planes, fishing, photography and traveling. He visited Luxembourg many times during his lifetime. We are honored to share our father’s heritage with Peter Thein Avenue.

(Note: the nearby town of Theinsville also was named for him.)

Bust of His Royal Highness Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, at the Luxembourg American Cultural Society in Belgium, Wisconsin

Luxembourg American Cultural Center in Belgium, Wisconsin. It includes a museum.

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A fun historical marker to find is one for an old toll road or toll booth. This one existed from 1852-1858 at the border of Allegan and Kalamazoo counties in Michigan. It was part of a plank road that existed til 1870, and is now Old US 131. More from a local historian: youtu.be/LA3x8Hn--68?...

Historical marker between Kalamazoo and Plainwell, Michigan. It reads:

This marker placed here by the D.A.R. marks the location of the Old Toll Gate, built in 1852 and discontinued in 1858.

Toll booth historical marker near Plainwell, Michigan. It’s a boulder on top of a boulder.

Farther-back shot of the toll booth marker in Plainwell, Michigan, with a house behind it

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Just like how there’s a town in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, called Belgium that was settled by Luxembourgers

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Always great to see good people do well and be recognized. Same, in this field, with Jason Benetti.

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John's History & Detecting Adventures UK @johnmbradbury.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

John Michael on Ancient Land & Never Detected on Harworth & Otley West Yorkshire England. youtube.com/shorts/YHbUK...

youtube.com

John Michael on Ancient Land & Never Detected on Harworth & Otley West Yorkshire England

YouTube video by John's History & Detecting Adventures

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

A marker is going up for Nashville Business College women’s basketball. Pre-Title IX, it won 11 AAU championships in 20 years. It played “women’s rules,” 6-on-6 with no one crossing half-court. The school killed the team in 1969 when the AAU adopted standard rules ovcsports.com/news/2026/9/...

ovcsports.com

OVC Sponsors Historical Marker Honoring Nashville Business College Women’s Basketball Team

The Ohio Valley Conference will join the Metropolitan Historical Commission and members of the Nashville community on Thursday, October 1 at 11:30 a.m. for the unveiling and dedication of a historical...

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Delegate Rozia Henson Jr @henson4virginia.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Honored to be at Pohick Church in Lorton for the unveiling of a new historic marker for George Mason, who oversaw this church's construction in 1774. I also hold space for the enslaved people whose labor built this place and whose names history did not record.

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Blake Rogers Wilson @bodyindc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

“American Indians first frequented Jones Point to hunt and fish. The point is likely named for an early English settler. By the 1790s, military installations were established at Jones Point due to its strategic location on the Potomac River.” Alexandria

A cloudy day with a silver historic marker with black text on a site under construction.

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I’m at today’s biggest college football game with playoff implications: Boise State at Western Michigan

Boise State v Western Michigan on the scoreboard in Waldo Stadium in Kalamazoo

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Caught “My Mother and the Michigan/Ohio War,” a play at the Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo. It revolves around a family going through their issues as they debate whether to fulfill their deceased patriarch’s dream to put on a re-enactment of the 1835-36 Toledo War. Recommend!

Me in front of the Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan, before a performance of
“My Mother and the Michigan/Ohio War.” I’m wearing a T-shirt that says “Toledo War Champs!” It has an outline of Upper Michigan below it, which Michigan received in exchange from Ohio for giving up Toledo and the Maumee Strip

A little reference to the recent Michigan-Western Michigan contretemps on the poster for My Mother and the Michigan/Ohio War by Paul Strolli.

Running time
89 minutes
No intermission
(And no, we won’t turn the clock back at the end of the play)

The playwright and cast of My Mother and the Michigan/Ohio War in a Q&A after the show at Farmers Alley Theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan

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Tom Wambsgans’ Second Wife, PhD @drwambsgans.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Sharing with alt text because it’s that important.

The incident fits a broader pattern in the discourse around 'free speech' and 'cancel culture': whatever comes from the top down is freedom; whatever comes from the bottom up is bullying and censorship. When Macklemore is dropped at the behest of the billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft, it's an exercise of the freedom of businesses to 'demonstrate their values' by deciding whom to platform. But when Ed Sheeran's fans decide not to buy tickets to his performances, or even demand refunds, it's bullying, mob behaviour. Since most people are not billionaires and do not own stadiums, they can exercise meaningful power only collectively. The collective exercise of power must therefore be demonised

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Historical Marker Database @hmdb.org · 26/09/2026

#OTD in 1774, #Swedenborgian missionary and prolific apple planter #JohnnyAppleseed was born. This memorial for him stands in #LancasterMA. ⛪️ 🍎 🍏 www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=220703

hmdb.org

Johnny Appleseed Apple Tree Historical Marker

(A historical marker located in Lancaster in Worcester County, Massachusetts.)

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Historical Marker Ahead @historicalmarker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

250 Garbage Gobblers were placed all over British Columbia in the 1950s. Only a few originals, like this one, are left, and they have historical markers. Many of the originals were removed, as this piece notes, because they weren’t bear-proof. infotel.ca/inwheels/one...

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whet moser @whetmoser.com · 25/09/2026

👀

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