Lighthouses

Publisher: Norton/Library of Congress

Publication Date:2006

This is the definitive study of America's lighthouses. The introduction provides an overview of the history and development of US lighthouses and the contents cover the physical structures of these buildings from 1764 onwards.

The author has drawn upon the enormous resources of the Library of Congress to produce one of the visual sourcebooks in Architecture, Design and Engineering. As might be expected from such a pedigree a vast amount of detail about scores of lighthouses is included. The book is lavishly illustrated with black and white photographs - some colour (color) would have enlivened the work for the average reader - and a mass of technical drawings. There are, however, scant references to lighthouses and their builders in other parts of the world which perhaps makes the title a trifle misleading. "Seamarks and their History" by John Naish provides a much broader overview for the non-specialist.

One interesting feature of "Lighthouses" is that it comes with a CD-ROM which contains high-quality downloadable versions of all the illustrations. C.H