IN.gov - Skip Navigation

Note: This message is displayed if (1) your browser is not standards-compliant or (2) you have you disabled CSS. Read our Policies for more information.


Subscribe for e-mail updates
Print This Page Rate This Page Suggest a Link E-mail This Page HELP Find a Person Find an Agency

UGRR Initiative

Approved by the Indiana Library and Historical Board, March 30, 2001

Updated February 14, 2003

Purposes

This Underground Railroad Initiative has three purposes:

  • to document and interpret Underground Railroad history in Indiana;
  • to bring attention to that history with a visual reminder of the importance of those people, places, and events which constitute the history and context of the Underground Railroad in Indiana;
  • to assist the many individuals and groups--especially Indiana Freedom Trails, Inc.--working to preserve the Underground Railroad history of Indiana through a heightened awareness of their existence and needs.

Parameters of the initiative

The Indiana Historical Bureau will collaborate with the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, Department of Natural Resources, the National Park Service, and Indiana Freedom Trails, Inc.

Guidelines and standards

Any Prospectus and Application submitted for this initiative must adhere to the current Historical Markers Program Guidelines. Any Prospectus and Application must also meet additional guidelines and research standards based on the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program; any additional guidelines and standards will be approved by the Indiana Library and Historical Board.

Supplemental materials for the UGRR initiative

An extensive packet of materials will be sent to each prospective UGRR applicant, including "Reconstructing the Stories of the Underground Railroad Movement," from the National Park Service, and Exploring A Common Past: Researching and Interpreting the Underground Railroad (on the Internet or in hard copy from U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, History Office, National Register, History, and Education, 1998).

Changes to standard marker format

Each of the Underground Railroad Initiative markers will have site specific text on side one; on side two there will be a carry over site-specific line of text, the standard UGRR text, and the Indiana Freedom Trails logo.

The standard UGRR text for side two of the marker, adopted by the Board, is as follows: "The Underground Railroad refers to a widespread network of diverse people in the nineteenth century who aided slaves escaping to freedom from the southern U.S."

The Indiana Freedom Trails logo was selected in August 2000, after a statewide contest, to identify and symbolize the organization and the Underground Railroad. Anitra Larae Donahue was the winning artist. The logo was adapted for marker use by Connie Shidaker, a graphic artist with the Department of Natural Resources.

Funding

Underground Railroad markers will be purchased under the standard funding requirements in the Historical Marker Program Guidelines (Guideline 16), using state funds, funds as available from the National Park Service grant to the DHPA, DNR, and private funds through applicants. When state funds or DHPA, DNR/NPS grant funds are approved for a marker, the applicant must pay a local cost share of one-third the standard marker cost, plus an art charge.

Effective until May 31, 2004, the total price for one marker is $1,800.00; the applicant's total local cost share is $800.00.

The DHPA, DNR/NPS grant funds as available will support Underground Railroad markers after the first marker in a county (on any topic) has been approved using state funds during a biennium funding cycle. Under Historical Marker Program Guideline 16.d., a county may receive only one state-funded marker during a biennium.