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Hooper Strait Light in St. Michaels, Maryland.
Credit: Library of Congress

Maryland’s Lighthouses

Grades 3-4

Lighthouses have long played an important role in maritime history, using their light to provide direction and warnings to boats. As trade grew in Maryland in the 1800s, lighthouses were built throughout the Chesapeake Bay. The lighthouses used a large glass lens with ridges that magnified the light of an oil lamp that was placed inside the lens. With this special lens, the light could be seen from more than 20 miles away. Today, many of those lighthouses are gone. Some remain as museums, and some are still active.

In this lesson, we will learn about the importance of lighthouses in the Chesapeake Bay, different lighthouse constructions, and the life of a lighthouse keeper.

Teacher's Guide and Related Standards

Objective

Students will be able to understand the importance of lighthouses to the Chesapeake Bay region, identify different types of lighthouse construction, and describe the life of a lighthouse keeper.

Essential Question

What is the historical importance of lighthouses in Maryland?


Maryland by Air Clip

Thinking questions:

  • What geographical features do you see in the clip? Which are natural? Which are manmade?
  • What characteristics of the Bay Shores determined the type of lighthouse that was built?
  • Why do you think the government practiced military operations near the Cove Point Lighthouse?


Vocabulary


Supplemental Enrichment Activites

Activity 1

Types of Lighthouse

This interactive map shows 12 lighthouses that are still standing in Maryland. They include the three construction types you learned about in the video – conical tower, caisson, and screw pile. Select the numbers on the map to view each image. Show these images to your students and discuss the features of each lighthouse. Discuss the following questions:

  • Can you identify the type of lighthouse in each of these images?
  • Do you see a keeper’s cottage?
  • Is the lighthouse built in the water or on land?

» Go to the interactive map

Activity 2

Women Lighthouse Keepers

Turkey Point was not the only lighthouse to have women keepers. At Blackistone Island Lighthouse in St. Mary’s County, Josephine Freeman served as keeper for 36 years. The lighthouse was built near her house when she was a child, and her brother and father served as keepers before her. Read this timeline and interesting information about her life. What was life like at the lighthouse for Josephine and her family?

» Keeper Bio: Freeman, Josephine McWilliams

Activity 3

Tasks and Tools

Lighthouse keepers had a variety of duties. They would have to:

  • Assist ships and sailors in distress
  • Clean and polish the Fresnel lens every morning
  • Clean lantern room windows daily
  • Fill lamp with kerosene every evening
  • Keep an accurate inventory of all light station equipment and fuel
  • Light the lamp at sunset; watch it during the night; extinguish at sunrise
  • Maintain log book and record all daily activities
  • Shine all the brass
  • Sweep floors and stairs daily
  • Take weather readings every day and record in log book
  • Trim the wicks of the lamp.

Below is an illustration of lighthouse keepers’ tools of the job. Which objects can you match to their work tasks? Can you make any guesses?

» Lighthouse Keeper's Implements


This learning resource is a production of Maryland Public Television/Thinkport.