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Ladies of the Lights
By: Patricia MajherImprint: University of Michigan Press
Format: Adobe Encrypted (DRM)
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"A great read about some great ladies, Pat Majher's Ladies of the Lights pays long overdue homage to an overlooked part of Great Lakes maritime history in which a select group of stalwart women beat the odds to succeed in a field historically reserved for men." ---Terry Pepper, Executive Director of Great Lakes Lighthouse Keeper's Association Michigan once led the country in the number of lighthouses, and they're still a central part of the mystique and colorful countryside of the state. What even the region's lighthouse enthusiasts might not know is the rich history of female lighthouse keepers in the area. Fifty women served the sailing communities on Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior, as well as on the Detroit River, for more than 100 years. From Catherine Shook, who raised eight children while maintaining the Pointe Aux Barques light at the entrance to Saginaw Bay; to Eliza Truckey, who assumed responsibility for the lighthouse in Marquette while her husband fought for four years in the Civil War; to Elizabeth Whitney, whose combined service on Beaver Island and in Harbor Springs totaled forty-one years---the stories of Michigan's "ladies of the light" are inspiring. This is no technical tome documenting the minutiae of Michigan's lighthouse specifications. Rather, it's a detailed, human portrait of the women who kept those lighthouses running, defying the gender expectations of their time. Patricia Majher is Editor of Michigan History magazine, published by the Historical Society of Michigan. Prior, she was Assistant Director of the Michigan Women's Historical Center and Hall of Fame in Lansing, Michigan. In addition, she has been writing both advertising and editorial copy for almost thirty years and has been a frequent contributor to Michigan newspapers and magazines.
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| Title of History eBook: Ladies of the Lights | |
| Release Date: 03-15-2011 | |
| Publisher: University of Michigan Press |
This eBook download is available in the following formats:
| Parent title | Ladies of the Lights |
|---|---|
| Encrypted (DRM) | Yes |
| SKU | 9780472028016 |
| File size | 2446 |
| Security | n/a |
| Printing | Not allowed |
| Copying | Not allowed |
| Read aloud | No Sys requirements Download reader |
| Devices | Samsung Tablet, Apple Ipad & Iphone, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo eReader, Aluratek Libre, Iliad, Nokia, Blackberry, Hanlin |
| Note | Excellent navigation features are available via Adobe such as bookmarks and a quick access table of contents. Text search is easily accessible. An Adobe DRM-protected file is different than a pdf file in that it uses Adobe DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology, which authors and publishers use to protect their content from illegal online distribution and to set certain privileges such as restrictions on copying and printing. |
Ladies of the Lights
Chapter One
Female Lighthouse Keepers: A Brief History
Mary Louise and J. Candace Clifford have written the foremost reference work about female lighthouse keepers in the United States. But a condensed version of that history may be useful to readers embarking on this book.
America's First Female Keeper
The story begins in the early eighteenth century, with the illumination of the inaugural "aid to navigation" in U.S. waters: Little Brewster Island lighthouse in Boston Harbor. First lit in 1716, it was manned—literally—by a fellow known as George Worthylake. Ten more lights were constructed up and down the East Coast, and nearly sixty years would pass before the first female keeper in the United States would be appointed. Her name was Hannah Thomas.
Initially serving as assistant, Hannah took full responsibility for the Gurnet Point lights at the entrance to Plymouth Bay (Massachusetts) when her keeper husband John left to fight in the colonial army in 1775. He never returned to his home, having died of smallpox in Canada. In his stead, Hannah assumed the difficult task of maintaining not one but two lanterns on the site, even surviving a skirmish between a British ship and a local militia that was guarding the lights. Her son succeeded her as keeper in 1790.
The Great Lakes' First
According to lighthouse historian Francis Ross Holland, the earliest lighthouses on the Great Lakes were lit at Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, New York, in 1819. Two years later, the first tower in Ohio was erected on the tip of Marblehead Peninsula at the narrow entrance to S
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