The Race to Illuminate the World
Lighthouses date back to ancient times, the most famous early example being the great Pharos at Alexandria, Egypt, one of the seven wonders of the world. As seaborne commerce expanded in the Mediterranean and along the coasts of Europe and the Americas, the need for navigation landmarks grew accordingly.
It became the "race to illuminate the world," the evocative subtitle of a book describing the rivalry between Britain and France to improve lighthouse technology in the 19th century to make coastlines and harbors even safer for ships, their crews, passengers and cargoes.
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The coastal American colonies recognized the importance of aids to navigation, as did the Congress of the new nation. With a growing economy heavily dependent on maritime commerce, measures were enacted to build lighthouses and install buoys and other markers up and down the eastern seaboard.
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The system developed piecemeal - in part under the direction of local customs officers - until 1820, when the U. S. Treasury Department assumed responsibility. Customs correspondence in the McGuire Library collection mentions various matters concerning lighthouses in the New London area.
In 1832, government architect Robert Mills was asked by Stephen Pleasanton, Secretary of the Treasury, to conduct a survey of American lighthouses, collecting information needed to better administer the system.
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Mills compiled his report from responses to a "circular" sent to all lighthouse superintendants, asking that they "furnish every particular relative to the Lights under their...supervision, which might be conducive to an elucidation of the subject of Light Houses, or in any manner useful to the mariner." ---Preface
The McGuire Library copy was reprinted from a microfilm held at the British Library, a title in its "General Historical Collections" intended to give readers "a 19th century view of the world."
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The book has special significance for the New London Maritime Society: as a government architect, in 1833 Robert Mills drew the plans for a New London Custom House, which was opened two years later.
Below: New London Harbor Light is the first entry in the book for "Connecticut."
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In 1846 two naval officers were sent to Britain and France to study their superior lighthouse technology. Their report is another highlight of the Library collection: The text is followed by 27 large plates of lighthouse components, each folded multiple times. For ease of use by researchers the plates of a second copy have been separated from the text and permanently flattened.
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SYNOPTICAL INDEX TO THE LAWS AND TREATIES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Boston, 1852
This topical list of Congressional acts passed between 1789 and 1851 is more interesting than the title suggests:
Under “New London,” an entry for June, 1832, reads "Custom house to be erected” while one for March, 1833, under “Lighthouses, Beacons, Buoys, Piers” lists over 850 acts authorizing aids to navigation, such as "Buoys off the harbor of New London,” "Lighthouse at New London rebuilt," "Spindle on rock in Mystic River,” and “Buoys in the Bay of Niantick.”
Safety in navigation was a pressing national priority and Congress went to extraordinary lengths to "illuminate" our coastlines and harbors.
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In 1876 the translation of a treatise on French lighthouses was printed in Washington to assist the Light-House Board in its efforts to improve the American system. First published in Paris in 1864, Memoir Upon the Illumination and Beaconage of the Coast of France contains elegant cross-sections of towers and apparatus such as this lantern with its weathervane and Fresnel lens.
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The most important innovation in lighthouse technology, by far, was the ingenious lens designed by French scientist August Fresnel which enabled beacons to shine more brightly, and be seen from a greater distance.
As Theresa Levitt writes in A Short Bright Flash, "Safely lighting the seaways of human commerce allowed international trade and colonial ambitions to flourish," while "harnessing the laws of optics to save lives."
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A Fresnel lens is on permanent display in the Custom House Maritime Museum alongside models of the three lighthouses that are the subject of this exhibition.