Ladies of the lights: Female lighthouse keepers in the UK and the US

It is an irrefutable fact that many lighthouse workers recorded in history were male. However, it was considered important for the keeper to have his family close by, as it would not tempt them to leave their posts and, in an emergency, the task of keeping the light on was considered at the time to be so simple even a woman or child could operate it.1 Yet the sisters, wives and daughters of keepers were far more competent and did so much more than merely assist in emergencies. They frequently helped the keeper with all his duties or even took over if he became sick or died. All these women did difficult work in harsh conditions, whatever the weather, and are deserving of respect and recognition that they rarely got in their lifetime.

Women have no doubt been tending to lighthouses as long as there have been lighthouses. In the medieval period from 1202 to 1530, nuns at St Anne’s Convent in Ireland used lighted torches to guide ships into Youghal Bay. 2 The first recorded official female lighthouse keeper was Hannah Thomas in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1776. The United Kingdom would have to wait until 1797 to record a female keeper: Elizabeth Wilding at Birkenhead Lighthouse, Merseyside.3 

This work involved keeping the light working, clean and well-maintained at all times (trimming wicks, topping up oil), as well as maintaining the keeper’s living quarters and keeping records. [fn] Erica Mezzoli , editor. Mermaids in History: Engendering Maritime Labour and Business History, 1700-1900. Brill, 2026. [/fn] On top of this, women had their usual domestic duties such as laundry, cooking, tending to livestock, and childcare. They did this in all weathers, no matter how hazardous conditions got. Catherine Moore, lighthouse keeper in 1871, described how she had to stay up all night to keep the eight oil lamps of her lighthouse at Fayerweather Island, Connecticut, lit during windy nights. 4Nevertheless, it was gainful employment with pay equal to their male counterparts, unheard of at the time. 

In the United States, being a lighthouse keeper was one of the first non-clerical jobs open to women, with officially over 200 women having held the role, although it is likely the true number is higher.5 From the perspective of the US lighthouse board, it was convenient way to pay a widow’s pension and keep an experienced hand operating the lighthouse,6 especially in more remote regions like the Great Lakes, which both had the most lighthouses in the US and were less attractive to move to. The US coast guard’s website lists 174 female names, from Hannah Thomas to Frances Johnson, who resigned in 1954.7 Most of the names date to before the First World War. By the 1920s, the US civil service forced many women out of the role, citing changes in equipment which they thought a woman would not be able to handle.8  Meanwhile, the National Lighthouse Board in the UK officially never hired any women, only occasionally having the keeper’s wife listed as an “assistant”.9 The few women who were lighthouse keepers in their own right were hired by local boards such as the Lancaster Port Commission or Liverpool Dock Committee, often due to being part of the family who managed the light.10 Overall, due to the size of its coastline and roughness of the Great Lakes, as well as unique managing structure, the US boasted the majority of female lighthouse keepers in history.

While most women lighthouse keepers lived their lives in obscurity, simply getting on with the job, a few rose to prominence as famous heroes. Well-known names like Ida Lewis in the US and Grace Darling in the UK were both lighthouse keepers, although they became known for different feats altogether. Grace Darling, alongside her father, helped rescue survivors of the vessel Forfarshire, which wrecked near their lighthouse in 1838. For the Victorian public, her heroism was only enhanced by the fact of her gender.11 Ida Lewis was similar: an American woman whose father was keeper of Lime Rock Lighthouse in Rhode Island, who gained fame for several rescues at sea, even before she herself became keeper in 1879.12 In 2018, Arlington Cemetery named a road in her honour.13 

Grace Darling, painted in 1839 by Thomas Musgrave Joy. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grace_Darling_Thomas_Musgrave_Joy.jpg. Currently held at McManus Galleries, Dundee.

Ida Lewis, date unknown. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commonshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IdaLewis.jpg

These women, as deserving of recognition as they are, were thrust into the public spotlight by exceptional circumstances. Many lighthouse women did not get those. They did their jobs with or without recognition, not seeing themselves as anything special but lighthouse keepers. Peg Braithwaite of Walney Island Lighthouse in Cumbria, UK, when interviewed about her work in 1993, acknowledged her gender made her of interest, but remained practical and pragmatic about her work, describing it without much romance.14 Being a keeper was, at the end of the day, work, but also a way of life and a routine for these women. Like most, they did not see their daily lives and duties as anything special; they were people with work to do.

Today, however, live-in lighthouse keepers, male or female, are rare. Many countries around the world, from the UK to Iceland to New Zealand have fully automated their lighthouses. The last female lighthouse keeper in the US, Sally Snowman, retired as of 2023,15  marking the end of an era. However, women are still involved in the lighthouse business, as the Northern Lighthouse Board in Scotland employs plenty of women in roles ranging from operations to maintenance to even retained keepers who visit the lighthouses for inspection.16 The legacy of the female lighthouse keeper lives on through them, though hopefully with less of the immense toil and struggle that the lighthouse keeper women of the 19th and early 20th century had to shoulder.

Automation control panel at South Foreland lighthouse, UK, which eliminated the need for any keeper. The lighthouse was automated in 1969. Photo by Michael Garlick, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_Foreland_Lighthouse,_control_room,_Automation