Telling History

New York State Historical Markers

Commemorating historical events, as understood and told at the time . . .

1932

1940

Not dated

2013

2020

The "On This Site Stood" series . . .

. . . consists of sculptures and photoshop mockups by Norm Magnusson that subvert the format of the typical roadside historical marker to add the weight of historical importance to some of today's most pressing issues.

The environment

U.N. Markers

(A collaboration with Jennifer Breslin - looking back from the year 2035 or 2040)

Future Conditional

This is a series that imagines the lives that might have been lived had they not been cut short by lynching. For more about this body of work, click here.

Augmented Reality

Some current augmented reality 'installations' with 'historical' markers.

Jennifer Breslin and Norm Magnusson

Below: a 3-d scan of a cast aluminum and acrylic paint sculpture, "installed" in front of Tops.

Below: a Photoshop mockup png file "installed" in front of the Rhinebeck Bank.

Above: Video of installation of AR 'historical' markers (photoshop mockups) at Bard's Hessel Museum

Below: Video of installation of AR 'historical' markers (from 3D scan) at the United Nations in NYC

Write your own historical marker

Maximum of 5 lines of text and maximum of 27 letters (including spaces) per line. Once you've got your text where you want it, copy it over onto this template: