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Plaque Project Update

Last October, we started the inventory of WHS Plaques, with many community members posting their info at the dedicated forum topic since. I'd like to give a big thanks to all who have contributed. Especially to Clyde, who is the go-to guy to answer the question “Where’s the plaque?” since he has been fascinated with them for a long time. About 70% of the WHS now have at least one plaque registered. 

Findings from the first stage

A total of 1179 plaque locations have been put forward, spanning 851 sites.  Over 1100 pictures of plaques were shared.

  • We found out that some plaques that had been photographed previously are no longer present on site. So there is a Plaque History as well. I’ve added those older ones to the repository as well (with a remark) since they may have had interesting designs.
  • When No Plaque has been found on a site, this is also logged.
  • Some sites have dozens of small plaques, one for each monument. Here, I tried to follow the logic of making separate entries only when they are at official separate components.
  • As always, when you’re taking on big projects, there’s a bycatch as well: this was really the first time that I used the location names in overview lists. Some were outdated or unnecessarily long, like “Canterbury Cathedral Canterbury, Kent”. In those cases, I updated the location names as well.

Incorporating them into the website

The full plaque overview can be found on this revised page: WHS Plaque Collection. When you click on a thumbnail picture in the list, you’ll get a larger version to view the plaque in more detail. I think it is great to browse through them and:

The page lists all plaques suggested so far, but adding all available photos is still a work in progress. Both Solivagant and Clyde gave me access to hundreds from their private collections.

Also, there’s a block on each site page that displays the applicable plaque(s). This is a temporary solution – maybe they would be better stored in an album, but we don’t have the functionality for that at the moment. 

Photo policy

For the plaque photos the same photo policy is applicable as elsewhere on this website:

  • The copyright of the photos stays with the original owner. The photo credit is shown.
  • Photos taken by community members are preferred over those from the public domain.

Also, I have

  • Chosen the clearest picture if we have more than one, preferably with the plaque being the center, with a little bit of the setting (on a wall, a stone, etc) showing. No people present.
  • Stored the photos in a reusable way (standard naming and in 3 sizes).
  • Watermarked the large pictures to discourage theft of this unique collection.
  • Not used external sources such as Shutterstock and Alamy (as the unpaid versions are covered in watermarks) and sources that don't allow deeplinks.

Things to do and how you can help

We’re not done yet! I will be adding the remaining photos that have already been delivered or suggested. There are still hundreds to go, so that will take me several weeks.

Where you can help is that we need plaque locations (and plaque photos) for the 372 missing WHS. I’ve put a list, ordered by country, of the missing ones on the Plaque Topic on the Forum. You can add the specifics there and/or send them by e-mail to els@worldheritagesite.org. Brazil, China, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Peru, Russia, South Africa, and Vietnam are countries that are especially underrepresented at the moment.

And if you have any photos of your own that could replace those now marked as coming from an “external source”, I’d also be grateful.

Els - 2 March 2025

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