Image: Gay Head Light - 1839 woodcut print

Description: This J.W. Barber woodcut print was made about forty years after construction of the first Gay Head Light. This woodcut print allows for comparison to the woodcut print made forty years earlier in c1800 of the same lighthouse. This c1839 woodcut print depicts significant changes in the grounds and buildings surrounding the wooden octagonal lighthouse. Namely, a fenced perimeter, a lightning rod atop the lighthouse, and a larger keeper's house with outbuildings. The installation of lightning rods on lighthouses, church steeples, and tall buildings slowly came into use after Ben Franklin invented the lightning rod in 1752. As the co-discover of the Gulf Stream, and as an avid sailor - Ben Franklin was well aware of the importance of lighthouses. This awareness is evident in a famous Benjamin Franklin quote, "Lighthouses are more useful than churches." According to records, a 10 parabolic whale-oil-fired lens was probably installed c1838 when repairs and improvements were made to the lighthouse tower. The magnification and projection intensity of the new parabolic lens must have served as a great improvement over the first whale oil fired spider lamp installed in 1799. The intensified reflective properties of the parabolic lens would have made the Gay Head Light's beam visible further out to sea. In early 1838, the lantern room was lowered 14 feet (4m) in an attempt to get the light under the fog. The lantern room was lowered again the same year by 3 feet (1m) during a major rebuilding of the lantern and deck. In 1844, the octagonal wooden lighthouse tower was moved back 75 feet from the eroding clay cliffs by John Mayhew of Edgartown at a cost of $386.87.
Title: Gay Head Light - 1839 woodcut print
Credit: William Waterway's private collection
Author: William Waterway
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No