Lighthousecore Aesthetic

Happy #NationalLighthouseDay! On August 7, 1789, Congress approved an act to support lighthouses, beacons, buoys, and piers. To celebrate we wanted to share this ca. 1890 photo of the United States Lighthouse Depot on Staten Island, now the site of the National Lighthouse Museum.

The General Lighthouse Depot, occasionally referred to as the Tompkinsville Lighthouse Depot, was founded in 1862 to serve as the central supply and maintenance station for all lighthouses and lightships in the US Lighthouse Service’s 3rd District. This District naturally included the critical Port of New York. The station constructed and maintained Fresnel lenses, manufactured all kinds of lighthouse structural materials, and stored thousands of gallons of oil in its underground vaults.

Today you can visit the National Lighthouse Museum and learn about the navigational significance and maritime heritage of lighthouses throughout the world.

Lighthouse Drawings in celebration of National Lighthouse Day

National Lighthouse Day is August 7 and to celebrate, we’re highlighting some architectural drawings and maps relating to lighthouses from our holdings of the Records of the United States Coast Guard, Record Group 26.

One of the more famous lighthouses in the United States, and also the tallest, is the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras, NC.  Its cylindrical shape with the lantern at the top and spiral stripes painted down its sides provide an iconic look at the architecture of many coastal beacons.  The stripes are unique to the lighthouse and act as a daymark for ships to identify it along the coast.  Keepers, and visitors today, had to take 257 steps to reach the balcony, which is similar to a 12-story building.

The lighthouse plans within our holdings also give us a closer look into the lives of lighthouse keepers.  In the days before automation, the keepers most well known duty, was to manage the lantern.  They not only had to light the lamps, but they needed to tend to basic cleaning and maintenance using the proper tools.

Window on the Wet Coast…