A lighthouse keeper or lightkeeper is a person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Lighthouse keepers were sometimes referred to as "wickies" because of their job trimming the wicks.
Fanny May Salter, a lighthouse keeper in the United States Coast Guard service, polishes the lens in the Turkey Point Light, Maryland in 1945.
Cover of The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Jules Verne and Michel Verne, one of several fictional depictions (books and films) of the lives of lighthouse keepers.
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
The Lighthouse of Praia da Barra, on the west coast of Portugal
The Tower of Hercules lighthouse in northwest Spain
Original Winstanley lighthouse, Eddystone Rock, by Jaaziell Johnston, 1813.
John Smeaton's rebuilt version of the Eddystone Lighthouse, 1759. This represented a great step forward in lighthouse design.