Historic Documents & Official Publications (Database)

Documents, including PDF photo collections, reproductions and scans of drawings, illustrations, and images, from the archives of the U.S. Coast Guard and its five predecessor agencies: the Revenue Cutter Service, the Life-Saving Service, the Lighthouse Service, the Bureau of Navigation, and the Steamboat Inspection Service from the Coast Guard Archives and Special Collections, Coast Guard, and National Archives.

NOTE: Documents provided are in the public domain.

U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office
2703 Martin Luther King, Jr., Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20593-7031


U.S. Coast Guard Museum
Coast Guard Academy - Waesche Hall
15 Mohegan Ave
New London, CT 06320-8100

Contacting us:  U.S.C.G. Historian's Office

Images & Photographs

19th Century West Coast Lighthouses & Eadweard Muybridge

West Coast Lighthouses of the 19th Century Often called the Father of Motion Picture, Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) was an English photographer who is well known for his use of multiple cameras to capture motion. In addition to his moving picture studies he was also a talented landscape photographer. In 1871 the Lighthouse Board contracted with Muybridge’s studio Helios to photograph the lighthouses on the west coast. From March to July of that year Muybridge traveled on the Lighthouse Tender Shubrick, photographing the west coast lighthouses for the sum of $20 a day. Six of these images were included in a traveling exhibit "Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change" at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Tate Britain Museum in London, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Jeffrey Bowdoin, Collections Manager, U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office.

VIRIN: CGD-180709-508-069.PDF
Photo by: Jeffrey Bowdoin
Download Image: Full Size

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