![]() ![]() “There’s always been a spiritual connection to lighthouses, but post-Covid I think they offer us hope,” Snowman says, attracting the odd sideways glance from commuters as she stands in the swell of urban Boston, wearing full period costume in homage to the early keepers’ wives, her outfit topped off with a frilly homemade bonnet and jaunty necktie.Įight miles “as the seagull flies” behind where Snowman now stands lies her beloved Boston Light the first established lighthouse in the US, built in 1716 following a wave of shipwrecks off the choppy Massachusetts coast. Lighthouses have long stirred the romantic core, but maybe there’s something about the steadfast beacon that resonates even more deeply these days. Since then she has spent 19 years working as the lookout’s devoted guardian, living seasonally on a dinky island, off the coast of Boston Harbour, that shrinks to the size of a football pitch when high tide rolls in. ![]() In an extraordinary life that has combined becoming one of America’s rare female lighthouse keepers with a career as an academic professor, Snowman realised her childhood dream by marrying her second great love - her husband, happily also a maritime enthusiast - at Boston Light. I gazed up at the lighthouse and said, ‘Daddy, when I grow up, I want to get married here,’” she recalls. “My father rowed me out to Boston Light in a little dinghy. Sally Snowman clearly remembers the thunderbolt moment she clapped eyes, aged just ten years old, on her first love. SGT SNUFFY on Remembering Jesse L.Sunday March 12 2023, 12.01am, The Sunday Times.Brown, First African-American Naval Pilot International Master Mariner on Harland & Wolff, Shipyard That Built the Titanic, to Build First Ships in 20 Years SMOM, International Master Mariner on Happy Presidents’ Day – Lincoln’s Improved Camel Patent Mike on The Hanging of Captain Nathaniel Gordon of the Slave Ship Erie - February 21, 1862.Sarah Johnson on The Hanging of Captain Nathaniel Gordon of the Slave Ship Erie - February 21, 1862.Rick Spilman on The Hanging of Captain Nathaniel Gordon of the Slave Ship Erie - February 21, 1862.Doug Bostrom on Remembering the MV Struma Disaster, Almost 800 Jewish Refugees Lost, 81 Years Ago Today.Mark Kellogg on Update: 49m Schooner Eleonora E Being Scrapped Following Collision and Sinking.Daniel Aguiar on Remembering Frank Woerner, “Folk Father” & Shanty Singer. ![]() Sheila Ewall on Remembering Frank Woerner, “Folk Father” & Shanty Singer.Virginia Jones on After Two Decades of Negotiations, Historic Treaty to Protect World’s Oceans.Matthias Mulvey on The Women Lighthouse Keepers of New Orleans’ New Canal Lighthouse.SGT SNUFFY on Women’s & Black History Months: Gladys West - Pioneer of GPS Technology.Richard Scott on Sargassum and Icebergs - Threats Warm & Cold.I just happen to keep a bigger light than most women because I have got to see that so many men get safely home.” “Madge” Norvell, the last of the five, is quoted saying, “There isn’t anything unusual in a woman keeping a light in her window to guide menfolk home. Elizabeth Beattie kept the lighthouse from 1847 to 1848 Jane O’Driscoll from 1850 to 1853 Mary Campbell from 1870 to 1895 her daughter Caroline Campbell Riddle from 1895 to 1924 and Margaret “Madge” Norvell from 1924 to 1932. ![]() It is unusual that it happened so many times in the New Orleans area.”īetween 18, five women served as keepers of the New Canal Lighthouse. They quote Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation Education Center director Chris Cook, who said, “Across the country, it wasn’t unusual for the man to die and the wife to take over. Oddly enough, in the 1800s, when women weren’t allowed to vote or own property, they could become lighthouse keepers.Ĭurbed New Orleans has posted an article about the female lighthouse keepers of the New Canal Lighthouse, on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, LA. Kate took over as keeper when her husband died of pneumonia in 1886. We recently posted about Kate Walker, the lighthouse keeper of the Robbins Reef Light in New York harbor for close to 35 years. ![]()
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