Lighthouse Library Boxes

The next issue of the Mystery Readers Journal will focus on Islands. One of the novels I particularly enjoyed features a Lighthouse on an island off the Cornish Coast, The Lighthouse by P.D. James. Sadly no one wrote an article for this issue on Lighthouse mysteries-- maybe it's its own subgenre. The loneliness of the lighthouse keeper has always peaked my interest.  So I was pleased to come across this article from the Michigan Lighthouse Conservancy on USLHE Traveling Libraries.

As light keeping was a lonely profession, supplies were usually brought to the keepers and families by lighthouse tender ships and included a library box. Library boxes were filled with books and switched from station to station to supply different reading materials to the families. In 1876 portable libraries were introduced in the Light-House Establishment and furnished to all light vessels and inaccessible offshore light stations with a selection of reading materials. These libraries were contained in a portable wooden case, each with a printed listing of the contents posted inside the door.

Read More HERE including a list of some of the titles.

Bookplate!