From Guiding Lights to Beacons for Business: The Many Lives of Maine’s Lighthouses

An iconic feature of the Maine coast (and in a few places inland), lighthouses have served as important navigational aids but also as tourist attractions, art subjects, and advertising symbols. This lavishly illustrated third volume in Historic New England’s visual history series explores the lives and legends of lighthouse keepers, shares tales of maritime disasters, examines the architecture of lighthouses, and discusses efforts to preserve lighthouses themselves. It also explains how Maine’s lighthouses have inspired myriad forms of representation, from paintings, photographs, and children’s stories to tabletop models and all sorts of practical bric-a-brac. The lights were key to the development of the tourist trade in Maine (beyond facilitating safe landings), and they are a ubiquitous symbol on corporate logos, advertisements, souvenirs, and collectibles–from the past to the present. The ten chapters are from a variety of contributors, and each chapter is richly illustrated with photographs and ephemera culled from private and public collections. Dynamically designed with fold-out covers, this book is indeed a treasure-trove of lighthouse information and images. Edited by RICHARD CHEEK, the book features contributions by W. H. BUNTING, maritime historian; THOMAS ANDREW DENENBERG, director of the Shelburne Museum; TIMOTHY HARRISON, editor of Lighthouse Digest magazine; KIRK F. MOHNEY, assistant director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission; DAVID RICHARDS, director of the Margaret Chase Smith Library; and EARLE G. SHETTLEWORTH, Jr., director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and Maine State Historian.