The United States Lighthouse Society Review of All Lighthouse Items in the Smithsonian Institution

We all know that the Smithsonian Institution and its 19 museums and many storage centers houses a number of lighthouse-related artifacts. Most lighthouse enthusiasts think that the Smithsonian must have one or more of nearly every type of lighthouse artifact somewhere either on display or in storage. We recently decided that it was time to try to find out just what artifacts the Smithsonian owns and where they are located. Your Society contacted the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to begin the process of determining what lighthouse-related artifacts were located there. Fortunately we were put in contact with Dr. Paul Johnston, who is the curator of maritime history at the National Museum of American History. Through the efforts of Dr. Johnston and two of his assistants, Peter Boyne and Michael Smith, we were able to identify that four different divisions of the National Museum of American History were holders of lighthouse-related items.