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Ever since I read Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, I have always been fascinated by lighthouses. (A life goal is to spend the night in a lighthouse, but I digress.) I was so excited when I opened Kate's Light: Kate Walker at Robbins Reef Lighthouse by Elizabeth Spires and saw that the end papers were primary source maps from the Library of Congress!
Kate's Light is the true story of Katherine (Kate) Walker who married lighthouse keeper, John Walker. Kate lived with her husband and young son in the Robbins Reef lighthouse. (To get into the lighthouse, she had to climb a steep ladder.) Kate herself became the assistant lighthouse keeper, but when her husband died, she received a letter from the lighthouse board telling her that she must leave the lighthouse. In 1895, after several men turned down the job because it would be "too lonely," she was hired as the permanent keeper, making her one of the first women to be in charge of an offshore lighthouse on the Eastern Seaboard. During her time as keeper, Kate wound up rescuing multiple people, and there were no days off.
I think her story is fascinating and will intrigue students.
Mind the Light!
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