Forms of Commemoration
6. Specific Guidelines: Forms of Commemoration
6.1 Monuments Not Owned
by the Department
6.2 Distinctive Monuments
6.3 Quality and Content
of Plaque Inscriptions
6.4 The Use of Non-Official
Language on Commemorative Plaques
6.5 Consultation on
Commemorative Plaque Texts
6.6 Style and Layout of Plaque
Inscriptions
6.7 Dual or Multiple Plaquing of a Designation
6.1 Monuments
Not Owned by the Department
In October 1967:
The Board reviewed the proposal of the Montmagny?L'Islet Historic
Monuments Society, requesting federal assistance for a monument
to Étienne?Pascal Taché. Considerable discussion ensued
on the Department's monuments [guidelines]. The Board then passed
the following resolution:
The Board as a policy does not recommend that the Minister contribute
to the construction of monuments not owned or built by the Department,
and further, recommends that in those cases in which the Department
builds a monument, the Department should determine and control the
design.
The above guideline was reiterated by the Board at its June
1985 meeting.
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6.2
Distinctive Monuments
In June 1968, the Board recommended the following:
The Criteria Committee of the Board has had under consideration
the future [guidelines] that should be followed with respect to
distinctive monuments. It makes the following recommendations:
1) It is essential, for the future guidance of the Board, that
precise and more restrictive principles should govern the choice
of such monuments;
2) The Board believes that in the vast majority of cases the
desire for a distinctive monument could and should be satisfied
by a slight modification to the existing setting of the standard
plaque. Where practical and appropriate, the design of the setting
could be varied so as to represent the achievement of the person
or the nature of the event to be commemorated, and in a manner
suitable to the location;
3) Where existing standard plaques or settings must be replaced,
the principles given in (2) above should be borne in mind;
4) With respect to distinctive and more elaborate monuments the
Board believes that even its limited experience has indicated
the many and serious problems involved. In the light of that experience
it seems clear that those subjects selected for such commemoration
should be few in number and should, in the opinion of the Board
be either persons of quite exceptional importance, especially
outstanding or unique fields of significant endeavour, or events
which would be nationally regarded as turning points of decisive
importance in Canadian history.
The Committee then considered what guidelines should be followed
by the [Program] in respect to the design of distinctive and elaborate
monuments, and recommended that the following considerations should
be borne in mind:
a) The National Historic Sites [Directorate] should be leaders
in the field of designing distinctive monuments, and should not
be slaves to tradition. Designs in all cases should be distinguished
and exciting and not second?rate or banal, and landscaping should
always be carefully planned.
b) The [Directorate] should, in the choice of sculptors, be guided
by the advice of the Directors of the National Gallery of Canada
and of the leading government-operated gallery in the province
concerned, and of the Board member in that province.
c) The type and design of the monument in each instance will
vary according to the person or event to be commemorated, the
theme to be emphasized, the location of the monument and any special
local circumstances that have to be taken into consideration.
d) Generally the design will not be completely abstract and should
be able to convey to the average member of the public some feeling
of the theme to be emphasized in connection with the person or
event.
e) The most important audience to reach in every instance is
the younger generation, for whom Canadian history must be made
to live in all its excitement and significance.
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6.3 Quality and
Content of Plaque Inscriptions
In June 1988, the Board, following discussion, accepted the
following recommendations regarding plaque inscriptions.
The Board first stated that it believed that the primary purpose
of its plaques was to educate and it followed, therefore, that plaque
inscriptions should be above all else informative. With this in
mind, the Board put forward a number of specific recommendations
to serve as guidelines when drafting plaque inscriptions:
1) a plaque inscription must state clearly why the subject of
commemoration is of national significance;
2) an attempt should be made to put a human face on all inscriptions,
in order to make them understandable to a general audience;
3) appealing words and phrases (e.g., Alegendary character@)
should be used in inscriptions when appropriate, as they add colour
and tend to make the text more memorable;
4) when possible the title of the plaque should be used to convey
information B this information need not be repeated in the text;
5) if in the title, birth and death dates should not be repeated
in the text;
6) dates should be used judiciously in texts and be inserted
only when relevant;
7) texts dealing with architecture should, whenever possible,
have a historical anchor;
8) architects and architectural firms need not be identified
in an inscription if they are not of some prominence in their
own right.
In November 1997, the Board further added:
that in preparing inscriptions, staff should ensure that the first
sentence clearly indicate the reason for national significance.
Further, national significance must be a single, compelling justification
and not a layering of many unrelated items, none of which on its
own would constitute grounds for national significance.
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6.4 The
Use of Non-Official Language on Commemorative Plaques
In June 2000, a report was presented to the Board on the use
of non-official languages on commemorative plaques. The Board approved
the following guidelines:
- The Board may recommend the use of non-official languages when
the national historic significance of the subject makes it appropriate
to do so.
- Inscriptions which include non-official languages must conform
to the Official Languages Act and the AFederal Identity
Program Policy@ with respect to precedence of English and French,
and bilingual HSMBC corporate signature.
- Additional languages appear with the official languages on
one plaque. In exceptional circumstances the Board may recommend
separate, non? official language plaques. Such plaques will be
erected with the bilingual plaque and will carry the Board's bilingual
corporate signature.
- Non-official language inscriptions will be written according
to the same linguistic standards as the official languages.
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6.5 Consultation
on Commemorative Plaque Texts
Since 1993, commemorative plaque texts have been sent to appropriate
groups and/or individuals for comments or "vetting" before
being reviewed by either the Inscriptions Committee or the full
Board.
The vetting process provides stakeholders with the opportunity
to verify historical facts and to offer their perspective for the
text. While the Inscriptions Committee and the Board give every
consideration to vettors' comments, not all comments may be incorporated
into the final text.
The Board adopted the following guidelines in June 2000 and
made modifications in November 2001. The final version reads:
- A Board plaque commemorates a person, place or event of national
historic importance. It has a commemorative objective defined
by the Board, and from a technical point of view, it must conform
to a standard length.
- The text, usually in its first sentence, must clearly indicate
the reason for national historic significance, as described in
the Board Minutes.
- The authorship of the plaque text lies with the Board, and
final approval of the text is given by the full Board.
- The Board seeks consistency in style, tone and arrangement
of its plaque inscriptions; vettors are therefore discouraged
from making comments on these matters.
- A report of the vettors' comments is included with the text
when it is submitted to the Inscriptions Committee for review.
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6.6 Style
and Layout of Plaque Inscriptions
In June 2001, the Board approved the proposed plaque design
and editing guidelines as follows:
- Textual material should be written for a high school reading
level.
- A dynamic writing style should be used as opposed to a documentary
style, which is more suited for a specialized audience.
- Titles for plaque inscriptions should be brief, simple and
set out in distinctive type, using familiar and descriptive language,
designed to draw the readers attention.
- Length of text should be limited to a maximum of 500 characters
in each language in order to attract and retain reader attention.
- Plaque inscriptions should be divided into three short paragraphs.
Each paragraph should begin with a larger capital letter than
the capital letters used in the text.
- A line of text should have at least 45 characters and not more
than 55 to 65 characters to facilitate scanning the information.
- Type style should be a serif character which helps to clearly
delineate each letter. Goudy font meets this requirement and in
addition, offers the proper combination of height, width and thickness
of character to enhance text readability.
- The font size for the body of a plaque text should be between
40 and 45 points, with 60 points for the title and 40 points for
the sub-title.
- Factors such as spacing between letters, lines and paragraphs
facilitate scanning, as well as left and right text justification.
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6.7 Dual or Multiple Plaquing of a Designation
In December 2002, the Board approved these guidelines as follows:
Under normal circumstances, a single plaque will be erected for each person, event, or site designated of national historic significance. In rare instances, a dual or multiple plaquing of a designation may be considered as an option:
- where two or more discrete locations are explicitly and meaningfully associated or identified with a national historic person, and are integrally related to the national historic significance of the person; or
- where there are two or more discrete locations in different regions that are explicitly and meaningfully associated with a national historic event, and that played an integral part in establishing its national historic significance; or
- where there are two or more distinct components or phases of a national historic event that played an integral part in establishing its national historic significance, and are essential in conveying national historic significance; and that are directly associated with different locations; or
- where the significance of a national historic event resides in its great geographical extent and impact on two or more regions, and its national historic significance can be conveyed in a substantially more explicit and meaningful manner by marking its geographical extent; or
- where the configuration of a national historic site is such that it would render the commemoration substantially more explicit and meaningful.
For national historic events that encompass great geographical extent, only one plaque should be erected in any one region or province.