ROLLING THE FILM BACKWARD
It was a cool fall day in
Biloxi, Mississippi and I had some time off from my USAF Air Traffic Controller
School. I decided to take a stroll down to the ocean and see if I could get a
few pictures. I had my 4 x 5 Speed Graphic camera with me when I saw a huge white
lighthouse located between a highway and the ocean, the Biloxi Lighthouse. I
fell in love with it right away and wondered about it’s history. I decided to
take a picture and framed it with a huge oak tree in the foreground in order to
show it’s proximity to the ocean.
The 48-foot
lighthouse was constructed in 1848 at the cost of $12,000. It has survived the Civil War and several
hurricanes. It still stands today. With
it’s fourth order fresnel lens, it remains an aide to navigation. It has the distinction of having the most
female keepers of any other lighthouse.
In 1973 it
was added to the National Registry of Historic Places. In 1987 was declared a Mississippi Landmark. It’s
history has given rise to a number myths. In days gone by, one of the popular
legends about the Biloxi lighthouse was that it was painted black following the
assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. What actually
happened was that the lighthouse was originally painted black and then
repainted white so as to make it stand out more against the background of live
oak trees. This occurred in 1867 -- two years after the president's death. The Biloxi
lighthouse is also the only lighthouse in the world situated on a highway
median.
This experience
taught me not only to be aware of the image I was photographing, but to also
contemplate it’s historical background. I find lighthouses go far back in time
and share so much of our early history of exploration and navigation.
A year
later, I was transferred to Otis USAF Base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
*Next will
be Lighthouses of Cape Cod.
