Books about Lighthouses on the Chesapeake Bay

Editorial Review: This text features a sequence of 32 photographic essays, documenting in 170 haunting images each of the lighthouses still standing along the shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay. For each lighthouse there is a photograph of the structure in its setting, a view looking out from the lighthouse, and a close-up of some singular detail of the building. The text discusses how and why the lighthouses were built, important events in their history, and in some cases the lives of their keepers. The sequence of lighthouses follows an imaginary journey around the Bay, starting at Cape Henry, site of the oldest existing light.

Editorial Review: The loss of one of the greatest treasures of the past, lightships, is happening at an alarming rate. Lightships of the United States of America is a collection of data from various websites and sources, outlining the technical specifications and historical information about each lightship. This would be the bible of lightships and the most complete reference of each lightship and its history.

With hundreds of photos of these lost icons, the forces of nature, lack of funds, and resources to preserve these treasures is of great concern. Our children will lose the ability to see and understand what these beacons of the sea contributed to the maritime history of the world.

Editorial Review: In Colonial times, as the Chesapeake Bay and larger rivers became vital shipping channels, the need arose to mark Maryland’s dangerous shoals and waterways. Lighthouses sprang up throughout the 1800s and early 1900s, including wood-framed cottages placed upon screw pile foundations that stood offshore in the unforgiving waters. Most of these unique structures did not survive, lost tragically to ice that also occasionally claimed the lives of the keepers who faithfully tended them and rescued mariners in trouble. With the advent of electricity and GPS, many beacons succumbed to vandalism and neglect, leaving a fraction remaining.

Editorial Review: A history of the lost lighthouses, lightships and the lighthouse establishment of the Chesapeake Bay from the beginning through to the 1960s.