Archive of original pre-Civil War architectural drafting sheets and documents for the establishment of the Cherrystone Inlet and Stingray Point lighthouses in the Chesapeake Bay
Baltimore, MD: Poole and Hunt, 1858. Very Good+. Item #50278 Baltimore, MD: Poole and Hunt, 1858. Nine (9) hand-drawn thin linen drafting sheets (varied sizes) for the Cherrystone Inlet and Stingray Point lighthouses, of duplicate construction; a five-page manuscript document of construction specifications attached to double-sided, large, two-sheet original United States Lighthouse Establishment Contract (largest 43x27cm unfolded; 21x10cm folded altogether). Treated drafting sheets creased at fold lines and margins with mild soiling, though nothing too obtrusive to drawings. Edges slightly fraying, but largely sharp. All but one have a sheet number to the top left corner and most have a scale of feet to the bottom margin except three. Contract generally soiled and toned with creases and a few punctures. A Very Good archive overall, with detailed descriptions available upon request. U.S. lighthouses had acted as prominent manifestations of the State since a dozen were federalized in 1789, pulling together local and regional trade networks into a national economy (Miller). In 1851 however, the U.S. was eager to upgrade its commercial and military operations as it leapt forward to a new era of modernization; the U.S. Lighthouse Board was formed and plans for the Cherrystone Inlet and Stingray Point lighthouses, to be produced in duplicate, began soon after. Drafted to oversee this operation, as well as many other lighthouses in the Chesapeake, was the prominent army officer and engineer Lorenzo Sitgreaves, who has been in charge of the Boundary Survey of Creek Indian territory after the Mexican-American War and led the famous Sitgreaves Expedition to map river routes through the Southwest to California. According to the previous bookseller of this collection, these materials came from his family archive, highlighting his involvement and pride in the process. Working with Sitgreaves was Robert Poole, an Irish immigrant who, along with his partner German H. Hunt, led Poole & Hunt Ironworks of Baltimore. They were a natural choice to work with, as they were responsible for the columns that encircle the base of the new U.S. Capitol building dome and later made cannons used by the Union Army during the Civil War. Philanthropist Enoch Pratt, who had built his wealth selling hardware and ironworks and was responsible for creating the free library system in Baltimore, signed the contract document, likely as the president of the National Farmers' and Planters' Bank of Baltimore. This collection is remarkable not only for the assembly of talent and ingenuity, but for the material’s detail and visual appeal – the contract specifications note, “The iron is to be of the best quality (American)... and the labor bestowed upon them to be such as to ensure a perfect job.” It showcases the nation in transition into an industrial and military powerhouse with evidence of the first generation of modern metalworkers to design and build the two screw-pile lighthouses, a new approach to lighthouse construction which had recently been invented by a blind Irish engineer named Alexander Mitchell. This lighthouse style was easily drilled into the shoal along the coast and could be manned by only one lighthouse keeper. Poole & Hunt erroneously labeled one drafting sheet “Stingray Point, MD." However, both lighthouses are on the Virginia side. They were in use from 1858 on, suffered plundering or destruction at the hands of the Confederate Army attempting to take the bay only a few years later but reinstated and restored in 1861 by the Union, a year before the Battle of Hampton Roads. The quasi-military Lighthouse Board had been wise to push for modernization; at the start of the Civil War, one of the Confederacy’s earliest acts was to darken all the Southern lighthouses and hide the valuable French Fresnel lenses inland so they could not guide Union warships. Eventually both lighthouses were deactivated and dismantled in the mid-1960s. A replica of the Stingray Point Lighthouse was installed onshore in the Stingray Harbor Marina in Deltaville, Virginia in 2003, the harbor named to honor Captain John Smith's apocryphal stingray attack when exploring in the area. Cherrystone experienced similar sea-creature vengeance: the 1903 lighthouse keeper was bitten by a crab and died from blood poisoning on site. A well-preserved archive of pre-Civil War architectural and engineering materials, full of opportunities for further research. Provenance: The previous bookseller of this collection notes that it originated from the family archive of Captain Lorenzo Sitgreaves (1811-1888), of the United States Army Topographical Engineers, who was closely involved in the design and construction of many lighthouses in the Chesapeake Bay Area. References: Allen S. Miller, “‘The Lighthouse Top I See’: Lighthouses as Instruments and Manifestations of State Building in the Early Republic.” Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Vol. 17, No. 1 (SPRING 2010), pp. 13-34 Matthew Wills, “To the Lighthouse: A Path to Nationhood.” JStor Daily: December 29, 2022 “The Cape Lookout Light and the Civil War.” National Park Service website from their “The Lighthouse and the War” series. Retrieved online.
Price: $12,500.00