American Coast Scene – Desert Rock Light House, Maine

Currier & Ives, the New York-based lithography firm, produced thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life. People eagerly acquired Currier & Ives lithographs, such as those featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting, fishing, domestic life and numerous other categories, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. Among the most popular and enduring images were those of New England, with this view being among the most dramatic, if not completely accurate. Located more than twenty miles off the rugged coast of Maine, Mount Desert Rock is a tiny, flat islet, which would be completely submerged beneath waves during storms; the mountainous coast depicted in this print was, in fact, quite a distance away. The granite lighthouse shown here was built in 1847; it replaced an earlier wooden one on this isolated, desolate site. Few keepers lasted very long in such an inhospitable setting, yet for decades the lighthouse beacon and fog horn guided ships, although lighthouse records also noted many shipwrecks and rescues.