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Ladies of the Lights: women lighthouse keepers in Maryland

Women's History Month Program

Lighthouse Keeper was the first non-clerical government job opened to women in Maryland. Learn their stories!

During the entire course of lighthouse keeping history in the United States, a total of 173 women served as keepers or assistant keepers, with 20 of these serving in Maryland. Learn the stories of these women who served here in Southern Maryland, at Piney Point, Blackistone, Upper Cedar Point and Point Lookout Lighthouses. Also included in the presentation is the last female keeper in the nation and the only female keeper in the U. S Coast Guard Service, who served at Turkey Point on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

About the Presenter: Karen Stone has been the museum division manager for St. Mary’s County since 2017. She did her undergraduate work at Gettysburg College and obtained her master’s degree at Penn State University. She got her first museum job while still in middle school and has been working in the museum field ever since. Stone has published many articles and has been a frequent lecturer on U.S., state and local history. She recently wrote her first book: Shipwreck on the Potomac: Disaster in pursuit of Lincoln’s Killer, which will be released by The History Press this April. Stone lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia with her husband. In her spare time she sings with the Chamber Chorale of Fredericksburg and at as many Fredericksburg Nationals baseball games as she can.

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