Portraits Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
PA.038 |
Title |
Beavertail Tower Lighthouse, Jamestown, Rhode Island |
Artist |
unknown |
Date |
n.d. |
Description |
View of the Beavertail Tower Lighthouse in Jamestown, Rhode Island; rough waves pound against the shoreline in the foreground; there are two ships in the left background. |
Object Name |
Painting |
Medium |
Oil Paint |
Material |
Canvas |
Dimensions |
H-33 W-45.7 cm |
Credit line |
Gift of Roger King |
Provenance |
2005, January 18 - Gift of Roger King Richard Champlin, Librarian of the Redwood Library, Newport, Rhode Island |
Inscription Location |
old label on stretcher |
Inscriptions and Marks |
Charles G. Calder, Providence, Rhode Island. |
Collection |
Painting |
People |
King, Roger |
Notes |
Beavertail lighthouse, 1749, Jamestown, Rhode Island. The first lighthouse at Beavertail was the third in the colonies. Made of wood, it burned to the ground four years later. The rubble stone tower that replaced it was damaged by retreating British in1779. The light was relit in 1783, and the structure remained notoriously drafty until replaced by the present granite tower in 1856. In 1817, Newport inventor David Melville conducted an unusual experiment in lighting the beacon with gas, but expansion of his efforts was thwarted by opposition from whale oil industry. The assistant keeper's house, added in 1898, today houses the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum (open mid-June to Labor Day, Wednesday-Sunday).(Excerpt from "Kindly Lights", page 136) |
Related Publications |
cover illustration for Kindly Lights: A History of the Lighthouses of Southern New England by Sarah Gleason, 1991 |