Lighthouse Digest

{{Short description|US maritime-history magazine}}

{{more citations needed|date=January 2016}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

{{Infobox magazine

| title = Lighthouse Digest

| image_file =

| image_size =

| image_caption =

| editor = Tim Harrison

| editor_title = Editor

| frequency = Six issues per year

| circulation =

| category =

| company = Foghorn Publishing

| publisher =

| firstdate = May, 1992

| finaldate = March 2025

| country = United States

| based = East Machias, Maine

| language = English

| website = http://www.lighthousedigest.com/

| issn = 1066-0038

}}

Lighthouse Digest, a specialty magazine from FogHorn Publishing in East Machias, Maine, is about maritime history with particular attention to the preservation of lighthouses and their past.{{cite web | url=http://www.biddefordpoolmaine.com/a_rescue_remembered | title=A Rescue Remembered | publisher=Blog: Biddeford Pool, Maine | work=Blog post | date=2005 | access-date=January 16, 2016 | author=Alley, Margo}} Though it is geared toward enthusiasts and antiquarians in the United States, it is also quoted commonly in more academic publications, and its editors have become a staple presence in scholarly circles.{{cite journal | title=And after the cross-dressed cabin boys and whaling wives? Possible futures for women's maritime historiography | author=Stanley, Jo | journal=Journal of Transport History | year=2002 | volume=23 | issue=1 | pages=21| doi=10.7227/TJTH.23.1.3 | s2cid=143658908 }}{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UdsPAQAAQBAJ&q=%22Lighthouse+Digest%22+%2B+%22The+Preservationists%22&pg=PR10 | title=The Lighthouse Encyclopedia: The Definitive Reference ("The Preservationists") | publisher=Globe Pequot | year=2004 | pages=viii–xi | isbn=0762727357}} Editor Tim Harrison issued the first number in May, 1992.{{cite web | url=http://www.shop.foghornpublishing.com/aboutus.sc | title=About Us | publisher=Foghorn Publishing | work=Blog post | date=2004 | access-date=January 16, 2016 | author1=Harrison, Timothy | author2=Kathleen Finnegan | archive-date=February 2, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160202032207/http://www.shop.foghornpublishing.com/aboutus.sc | url-status=dead }}

Scope

Coverage includes historic and current lighthouse events and an events calendar for lighthouse activities around the United States and elsewhere. They publish a "Doomsday List" (see below) of Endangered lighthouses, and have helped save a number of at-risk lighthouses.

They have been credited with uncovering many parts of lighthouse history that had been unknown, or which were thought to have been lost.

Each issue carries articles and unusual lighthouse-related stories that, for the most part, cannot be found elsewhere, and many photos, historic and contemporary.

Tim Harrison died on August 19, 2023, at the age of 75.{{Cite web |last=Bartow |first=Adam |date=2023-08-28 |title=Maine lighthouse preservationist, author and publisher dies |url=https://www.wmtw.com/article/maine-lighthouse-preservationist-author-publisher-timothy-harrison-passes-away/44924784 |access-date=2023-09-28 |website=WMTW |language=en}}

Audience

Lighthouse Digest has subscribers in all 50 United States and 17 other nations. Currently{{When|date=October 2023}} it publishes six issues a year. The founding editor was Tim Harrison; the current editor is Kathleen Finnegan-Harrison.

Doomsday List

The Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List is a list of endangered lighthouses. The list usually consists of lighthouses in the United States and Canada, but occasionally includes sites from other countries as well. Inclusion on the list raises awareness that a lighthouse is in trouble. {{cite web |title=The Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List |url=https://www.lighthousedigest.com/Digest/database/doomsday.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102003257/https://www.lighthousedigest.com/Digest/database/doomsday.cfm |archive-date=2 January 2011 |access-date=6 August 2010 |work=lighthousedigest.com |publisher=Lighthouse Digest}} Russ Rowlett keeps an annotated version of the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List on the Lighthouse Directory.{{cite rowlett|doomsday}} He has also compiled a Watch List of other lighthouses he feels should be on the Doomsday List.{{cite rowlett|watch}}

The Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society also holds a Doomsday List of Canadian endangered lighthouses,{{cite web|url=http://www.nslps.com/ResearchPres/doomsday-list.aspx|title=NSLPS Doomsday List 2008|work=nslps.com|access-date=6 August 2010|publisher=Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society|archive-date=22 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100522042453/http://www.nslps.com/ResearchPres/doomsday-list.aspx|url-status=dead}} though according to Russ Rowlett it is not truly national in scope as most of the lighthouses listed are in Nova Scotia. Russ Rowlett keeps a more complete list with no official standing{{Compared to?|date=October 2023}}.{{cite rowlett|can_watch}}

A similar list for lighthouses in Puerto Rico was constructed by Sandra Shanklin for the Lighthouse Digest in 2002.{{cite journal|last=Shanklin|first=Sandra |title=Doomsday Lights of Puerto Rico|journal=Lighthouse Digest|date=February 2002|url=http://www.lighthousedepot.com/lite_digest.asp?action=get_article&sk=1232|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614063102/http://www.lighthousedepot.com/lite_digest.asp?action=get_article&sk=1232|url-status=dead|archive-date=2011-06-14|access-date=6 August 2010}}

References

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