Legal Research

Lighthouse Libraries

By admin

Wow. I had never heard of this and thank the Librarian blog for pointing me it.

USLHE Traveling Library
(Michigan Lighthouse Conservancy)

Lighthouse traveling libraries were used to supply light stations with reading material. All boxes were numbered as this one was, #138

“Lighthouses were often time located in remote areas and as such had no access to city services such as libraries, opera houses, entertainment, etc. that most people enjoyed who lived in a town or city. As light keeping was a lonely profession in most cases supplies were brought to them by lighthouse tender ships. One of the items the tender supplied was a library box on each visit as pictured to the left. Library boxes were filled with books and switched from station to station to supply different reading materials to the families.”

It all stared in 1876. Read more abut these libraries on the site.

It’s always fun at the Lighthouse!

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on September 17, 2010 (boomark / email).