The United States Lighthouse Society can make speakers available on a wide variety of lighthouse subjects. Whether you need a general introduction to lighthouses or a detailed technical essay on Fresnel lenses, our goal is to assist you with the type of speaker you need for your event. We can also provide photographs, drawings, etc. covering many lighthouse subjects.

Our speakers have made presentations across the country at a great variety of lighthouse events such as: the Maritime Heritage Conferences, regional lighthouse association meetings, libraries, colleges, the Michigan Lighthouse Alliance meetings, lighthouse transfer ceremonies, and more.

If your organization is holding an event where a lighthouse presentation would be appropriate please contact our Society and we will endeavor to assist you in finding a speaker.

Contact us at: info@uslhs.org

Below are our presenters who can speak on a variety of topics.

Wayne Wheeler

In 1984 Wayne founded the U. S. Lighthouse Society, a national nonprofit society focusing on history and education with a stress on preservation and is currently the president of our Board of Directors. He is one of the pioneers of the lighthouse preservation movement and one of the foremost experts of lighthouse history in the U.S., and everyone fondly refers to him as the "Head Keep'".  Over the years he has been a member of numerous maritime-related organizations and has presented talks from coast to coast; from Key West, Florida to Block Island, Rhode Island; to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and numerous west coast organizations. He has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including National Public Radio, Good Morning America and CBS. Wayne has been written up in most U.S. newspapers as well as Life, Smithsonian, Americana, People and the Syracuse University Alumni magazine. Wayne has taught courses on the History of Lighthouses at the California Academy of Science and the University of North Carolina Asheville Reuter Center.

  • From Bonfires to Satallites - The History of Lighthouses
  • Lighthouses of Antiquity - tracing the general development of lighthouses from the Pharos of Alexandria of Egypt to colonial times with discussions of famous U.S. lighthouses and some international lighthouses like the five Eddystones and Lanterne of Genoa, Italy.
  • The Evolution of the American Lighthouse Service - From 1716 to today and how it has evolved through five distinct periods.
  • The Development of Optics - Candles to modern lenses
  • The Evolution of Illuminants - Open fires to electricity
  • The Keeper's Life in the Golden Age of Lighthouses (1852 to 1939)
  • Lighthouse Architecture
  • History of Sound (fog) Signals
  • Minor Aids to Navigation (shore lights and buoys)
  • Lighthouse Bases and Development of Districts
  • Female Lighthouse Keepers (The Keeper Wore Skirts)
  • Creative Reuse of Light Stations (Preservation of the past 30 years)
  • Oooooops! (mistakes made with location)
  • Lighthouse Lodging

Talks on Lighthouses of various areas:

  • Great Lakes
  • California Coast
  • San Francisco
  • North Carolina
  • Reef Lighthouses of Florida
  • Alaska

Henry Gonzalez

Henry is the Vice President of the U.S. Lighthouse Society and the Chairperson of the Society’s Preservation Grants & Awards Committee as well as the manager of the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, located in the Chesapeake Bay. He has spoken at several national and international lighthouse conferences and can tailor a presentation in the following areas:

  • General lighthouse history
  • Chesapeake Bay lighthouses
  • National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act application and transfer process
  • Planning & Executing Lighthouse Preservation in accordance with “The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties”
  • Lighthouses of Spain
  • The Importance of Proper Preservation Planning before Execution
  • Screwpile & Other Offshore Lighthouses

Ralph Eshelman

Ralph is a U.S. Lighthouse Society Board Member, and has over 30 years of cultural resource experience; much of it related to lighthouse preservation. Ralph was the project director for the team which moved, renovated, and interpreted the 1883 Drum Point Lighthouse, at Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland, between 1974 and 1977. He also served as historian for several assessment teams which surveyed 31 historic lighthouses located throughout the United States for the Department of Defense, U.S. Coast Guard, and the Bureau of Land Management in 1995 and 1996.

  • Smoke by Day, Fire by Night: History of Lighthouses        
    This is a fully illustrated talk from the Wonder of the Ancient World's Pharos of Alexandria to modern automated beacons. This lecture can also include examples of lighthouses from any particular state or region of the world from Chesapeake Bay to Antarctica.

Elinor DeWire

Elinor is a U.S. Lighthouse Society Board Member, an author, educator, and a charter member of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.  She has been researching, photographing, lecturing, and writing about lighthouses since 1973. Elinor has published 17 books and numerous articles about lighthouses and related maritime topics. She has been a regular contributor to the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s Keeper's Log since it began publication in 1984. She writes a lighthouse blog and also contributes to several lighthouse newsletters.  In the early 1990s she developed a lighthouse unit for her elementary classroom and eventually turned it into a consumable book called The Lighthouse Activity Book for Kids. 

  • Lighthouses across America
  • Keepers in Skirts: Women Lighthouse Keepers
  • The Lighthouse Menagerie: Animals at Lighthouses

Marie A. Blunt

An avid lighthouse enthusiast for over two decades, Marie A. Blunt has seen over 480 lighthouses across the US and Canada. She travels with her photographer husband, Allan, incorporating his vibrant pictures into her presentations and publications. A retired executive director, among other current hobbies Marie provides lighthouse programs featuring intriguing history, lively audience participation and a wee bit of wit. She is the author of The Lighthouse Primer and Lighthouses of Port Washington (which will be published in April 2025) and has contributed several articles to the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s Keeper's Log. The Blunts live in Indiana, regrettably a state with only half a dozen lighthouses.

Marie has developed over ten hours of lighthouse lecture material which may be presented in the most suitable manner for the host organization’s requirements. For example, she has conducted a 10-week class at Forever Learning Institute; a 3-week two-hour series of classes for the Michigan City Historical Society; and numerous one hour presentations across the country including the Port Washington Historical Society (WI) and the Friends of Oak Island Lighthouse (NC).

  • Talk like a Pharologist: Pharologists are ones who study lighthouses. See dozens of beautiful lighthouse photos and connect the language of lighthouses to their unique architecture and various components. Audience volunteers are given definitions which are then matched to the screen diagram in a lively large group format. It’s fun for the whole family.
  • Navigating the Seas (Lakes, Rivers, and Oceans, too): Oils, lamps, lenses, characteristics, daymarks, range lights and fog systems…What are all these things and how did yesterday’s keepers use them to help vessels navigate? (And do it all without electricity!) The presentation includes a “dark and stormy night” simulation (no danger involved) where participants must identify “their boat’s” location using only lighthouse beacons.
  • Lighthouse History: Participants work together to build a United States Lighthouse Timeline which includes the various agencies responsible for lighthouses, key innovations, and the rise and fall of the number of lighthouses standing. We will break the keeper stereotype of the “old white guy in a yellow slicker smoking a pipe” and discuss yesterday’s keepers’ tasks. If time allows, an old-fashioned recipe of whitewash will be mixed and applied (to scrap wood). After all, yesterday’s keeper couldn’t stop by the corner Menards or Lowes!
  • Today’s Keepers: While Europe may have their castles, we have our lighthouses! Contemporary maritime navigation systems don’t rely on staffed historic towers lit by oil, but these historic towers are a key part of our national identity and history. Lights no longer fueled with oil or lit by onsite keepers still require tending. Parks, museums, friend societies and private owners all play a role. Participants explore various contemporary keeper arrangements and are introduced to tools to plan their own visits either as resident keepers, overnight guests or as day tourists.
  • A Few Penny Pinching Methodologies: Explore how the government certainly has the tax payer in mind when reusing various parts of the lighthouse, moving lighthouses, modifying existing structures and more. What happens when they seem too short? What happens when they fall down? What happened when the contractor built the tower on the wrong island? Join us to find out!
  • Does it count as a lighthouse? Participants “vote” if a lighthouse “should count” as a lighthouse while learning how experts define lights, harbor lights, lighthouses, light stations, beacons, active aids to navigation, and private aids to navigation. And let’s not forget about historic ruins! Spoiler alert: In the end, participants are challenged to begin a list counting the number of lighthouses they have visited.