All this month (July 1st - July 22nd) you can hopefully let us know it's the Dark of the Moon Tours as we ask our discerning public to vote for us during the annual St. Augustine Record "Best Of" contest! Each year voters choose their favorites in all categories in town from hair salons to restaurants to entertainment options. Open to the public, Dark of the Moon Tours offer guests a chance to learn about the ghosts who [...]
Around this time each year the Museum store prepares for the heavy tourism season. St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum Gift Shop staff work to ensure appropriate levels of inventory, to have the types of items people enjoy and to keep the store looking good despite the foot traffic which goes in and out each day. One person who does an exceptional job day in and day out is Sam Andrews. Sam is the Museum Shop [...]
The R/V Roper, IMH’s 36’, steel-hulled, ex-shrimp trawler turned dive research vessel approaches the loading dock. She returns June 22 for another summer of research in St. Augustine. It’s that time of year again: the higher humidity is returning to the air while temperatures rise both here on land and in the water offshore; in order to accommodate the busy summer season, the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum will soon be returning to extended hours; [...]
The St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum is excited to announce The Beacon Society: a new volunteer service group that will help promote the Museum's non-profit mission through fundraising, advocacy, and volunteering. This group of philanthropic and service-minded individuals is replacing two of our previously active support groups called The Tower Club and The Guild. With a resurgence of interest to give back to the Lighthouse in a more donor-centric way, we have decided to revamp [...]
The St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum is excited to announce a new volunteer opportunity! We are currently recruiting for new Volunteer Gardeners to help maintain the 6 acres that the Lighthouse and Museum sit upon. We have been very lucky in the past to have had Corporate and Civil groups help us with large projects. Many of these groups have helped us spread mulch, plant and weed our grounds. It was during our last [...]
What’s in a Collection? Dog Tags Personal identification tags or commonly referred to as dog tags are an object that most of us are familiar with maybe seeing them in movies or first hand from a family member. They were issued as part of the military uniform, but continued to serve as personal keepsake for family members. The tags primary function was to be used for the identification of fallen and wounded soldiers. These tags [...]
On April 5th, the World War II-era garage here on the light station was raised by professional house movers. As part of restoring and maintaining our historic campus, the building will be converted for use as WWII Coast Guard exhibit space and for the Museum’s café. For years, soil built up around the foundation, causing moisture and termite problems that almost completely destroyed the original structural fabric. In 2008, the Museum completed some internal work [...]
Volunteers from the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum donated over 21,000 hours in 2016 to help with maritime research, building and artifact preservation, improving the visitor experience and teaching others at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, Inc. Volunteers are the heart of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, and on Thursday, March 9, the Museum had the chance to honor them. Many of their dedicated volunteers and staff gathered at the [...]
People have hunted whales around the world for thousands of years, primarily for meat and blubber. In America, the practice really took off in the colonial 18th century and hit its peak in the mid-19th. The most lucrative product at this point was whale oil, derived from boiling down blubber or harvesting the head of sperm whales. As the American industry grew and expanded, so did the whaling practices and technology, which is where our [...]
As you might imagine, visitors to the St. Augustine Lighthouse are often excited about climbing the tower and enjoying the amazing panoramic view from 140 feet in the air. But in your excitement to climb the 219 steps to the top, you may overlook many small details that reveal some interesting stories of the Lighthouse. And if climbing the tower is your only concern, then there are many other details you will miss in and [...]
