Apply for a Historical Marker

*This year's 2020 marker application period closed June 15th, 2020. Approved 2020 marker topics will be listed below on August 3rd.

Next year's 2021 marker application period will open March 1st - May 15th,2021.

The historical marker process in Texas begins at the county level. After you have reviewed all the relevant information on this page, contact your county historical commission chair if you are interested in submitting an application.

Please note that applying for a marker is highly competitive, all required components must be included when submitting an application. See Marker Toolkit for more information on how to apply. The entire process of application submission to marker dedication is very long, most applications take 12-18 months.

Below are samples of the previous year's marker applications which will be similar to the 2021 marker applications. New applications will be available in Word doc and pdf format starting in January 2021:

Subject Marker Application (Sample PDF)
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) Application (Sample PDF)
Historic Texas Cemetery (HTC) Marker Application (Sample PDF)

Please note that all marker applications must be approved and submitted by your county historical commission chair or marker chair to markers@thc.texas.gov during the open application period. 2021 marker applications will not be considered for approval if received by the Texas Historical Commission before or after the open marker application period of March 1st - May 15th, 2021.

HTC Name & Date Plaque Applications (accepted year round)

An Historic Texas Cemetery designation is a pre-requisite for a cemetery marker. If your cemetery has been designated as historic through our Cemetery Preservation program and you wish to purchase a non-interpretive historical plaque, then you can submit the form below.

Note: For an interpretive historical marker for the cemetery, please submit an HTC Application during the regular Spring application period (see section above to download HTC Marker Application when available).

HTC Name & Date Plaque

The HTC Medallion with Name & Date Plaque application is available in Word doc and pdf format, please click on the link to download:

HTC Medallion with Name & Date Plaque Application (Word doc) (PDF)

HTC Medallion with Name & Date Plaque Application SAMPLE (Word doc) (PDF)

Marker program staff offer several online webinars explaining the marker research and application process. Look here for a list of dates and times for these training opportunities.