It’s been almost 135 years since the Lewis A. King ran aground in a storm near Montauk Point. She was a two-masted schooner from Maine traveling from Boston to New York. The Lewis A. King could carry 142 tons and on December 18, 1887, was loaded with pipe clay and 300-pound sacks of dates. The… Read more »
“Montauk Point, Long Island,” by Charles Parsons. Article printed in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, September 1871. First page of article, showing woodcut illustration of the Montauk Lighthouse, Al Holden Collection, Montauk Library Archives. Please note: This article is in the public domain, and can be accessed for free. See web address below. This September marks the 150th… Read more »
The Montauk Lighthouse structure as we know it today received its daymark, or dark red horizontal band, in 1899. It was done to help sea captains distinguish which lighthouse they were looking at during daylight. A lighthouse at night, with its steady or blinking flash, dispersed location information to the sea traveler, but during the… Read more »
Hand-coloring was often employed on vintage postcards, done by the manufacturer during production. Like most early postcards, this particular view was originally transferred from a B & W photograph. However, since postcard buyers would almost always purchase the brighter image, as early as 1902 collotype-printed postcards in B & W would gain a painterly flourish. … Read more »