08/07/2026
August 7th is National Lighthouse Day, a time to honor the dedicated keepers who kept mariners safe. While many assume a lighthouse keeper's life was completely lonely, reality tells a very different story.
Many of Maine’s stations utilized dual keepers, meaning a head keeper and an assistant shared the daily responsibilities. Keepers were also allowed to bring their families along, which meant lively, if often cramped, living quarters. Furthermore, the general public visited regularly, and official rules required keepers to guide guests on tours of the station's points of interest.
Instead of dealing with isolation, keepers were consumed by a mountain of paperwork and grueling daily labor. As detailed in the 1881 handbook, "Instructions to Light-keepers," they logged everything from weather patterns and exact sunrise times to precise audits of lamp oil, cleaning supplies, and monthly expenses.
By far the most important, and worst, job at a lighthouse was the constant need to clean and polish the Fresnel lens. The sea mist, containing chloride particles, and constant humidity would help to break down the protective coating of the lighthouse brass causing it to oxidize quickly. The chore would start with the preparation of the rouge powder and the rotten stone mixtures. These finely ground powders needed to be mixed either in water or mineral oil and allowed to sit for a time to allow the larger particles to settle to the bottom before being poured into another container to leave the larger particles behind. The water was poured off and the paste was ready to apply to the brass and the lenses. These pastes needed to be prepared daily. Before the pastes could be used the lens glass was first swept with a feather brush to remove all dust and oils and grease were removed with a linen cloth. The pastes were then applied and the hundreds of individual lenses were polished to a shine. The brass fittings surrounding the lenses were polished to a mirror like shine. Day in and day out all the brass and glass needed to be meticulously polished. One lighthouse keeper found the constant brass polishing so disagreeable he put pen to paper and composed a poem on the banes of lighthouse brass.
So, the next time you picture the life of a historic keeper, do not worry about them being lonely. Feel sorry for them because of all that brass!
Curious about what its like to care for a lighthouse in the 21st Century? Watch this short expose on Goat Island Light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn2NWF82gmg
Explore historical profiles of Maine's stations on the Legendary Lighthouses Guide. https://www.pbs.org/legendarylighthouses/html/mainegs.html
You can also dive deep into primary documents, logs, and historic blueprints through the USLHS Lighthouse Research Catalog: https://archives.uslhs.org/
For the full text of "Instruction to Light-keepers" go to:https://uslhs.org/sites/default/files/attached-files/1881%20-%20Instructions%20to%20Lightkeepers.pdf
Images: Poem by Unknown Author, "Brasswork, or the Lighthouse Keepers Lament" published in unknown newspaper 1962, Mount Desert Island Historical Society; Wolcott H. Marr, keeper at Hendricks Head Light on Southport Island from 1895 to 1930 with his son, one of 10 children who lived on the island, from lighthousedigest.com; Richard Butler, lighthouse keeper, next to Bass Harbor Light’s Fresnel lens, Mount Desert Island Historical Society
