[MassHistPres] Seeking Input: Municipal Responses to Tercentenary Markers

[Michael Ruderman]

I'd begin by addressing the issue with a tab on the Sudbury HC's excellent
website devoted to these markers. Set out the facts: they're state property
(MassDOT, successor to MassHighway/Mass. Highway Department/Mass. DPW),
their origin and history (many sources online, including a recent inventory
of extant markers), their 1920's view of historical significance, all the
implicit assumptions therein (and some outright factual errors--Arlington's
Terc'y markers have several), and how history as a discipline always moves
forward in re-evaluating the past. Invite the public to give their
impressions of them. Maybe devote a portion of a few regular Commission
meetings to hearing comments. Engage your audience in this ongoing work of
history by attempting to answer the big questions: if these signs don't
tell our whole story, or stories, where could we say so? What else would we
say?

Michael Ruderman
x-Arlington Historical Commission
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