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Virginia Administrative Code
Title 17. Libraries And Cultural Resources
Agency 5. Board of Historic Resources
Chapter 40. Regulations Governing Contextualization of Monuments or Memorials for Certain War Veterans
11/15/2025

17VAC5-40-10. Definitions.

The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Application" means an application for approval of a marker and contextualization text, in a form prescribed by the director and containing the basic information required by 17VAC5-40-40.

"Board" means the Virginia Board of Historic Resources.

"Contextualization text" means text that contextualizes or purports to contextualize a monument or memorial.

"Contextualize" means the use of facts derived from primary or footed secondary sources, to include oral history, to explain the circumstances, influences, and conditions that existed at the time a war memorial or monument was erected and that resulted in its erection.

"Department" means the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

"Director" means the Director of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

"Locality's public property" means any property owned by a locality, excluding any publicly owned cemetery.

"Marker" means a marker, plaque, or signage of any kind that bears or contains a contextualization text. The term "marker," though singular, includes one or more markers, plaques, or signs of any kind. A marker is not a monument or memorial.

"Monument" or "memorial" means any object erected on a locality's public property pursuant to § 15.2-1812 of the Code of Virginia intended to commemorate the veterans of any war or conflict or any engagement of such war or conflict to include the following: Algonquin (1622), French and Indian (1754-1763), Revolutionary (1775-1783), War of 1812 (1812-1815), Mexican (1846-1848), Civil War (1861-1865), Spanish-American (1898), World War I (1917-1918), World War II (1941-1945), Korean (1950-1953), Vietnam (1965-1973), Operation Desert Shield-Desert Storm (1990-1991), Global War on Terrorism (2000- ), Operation Enduring Freedom (2001- ), and Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003- ). "Monument" or "memorial" includes both the object and the pedestal on which an object is placed. "Monument" or "memorial" does not include any monument or memorial located in a publicly owned cemetery.

Statutory Authority

§ 10.1-2204 of the Code of Virginia.

Historical Notes

Derived from Virginia Register Volume 42, Issue 4, eff. November 5, 2025.

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