October 9, 1852 — The Lighthouse Board was formerly organized. The Board administered the lighthouse system until 1 July 1910.

On March 3, 1851, the U.S. Congress passed “An Act Making Appropriations for Light House, Light Boats, Buoys…” Section 8 of the act stated:

“The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and required to cause a board to be convened at as early a day as may be practical after the passage of that act to be comprised of two officers of the Navy of high rank, two officers of Engineers of the Army, and such civil officers of scientific attainments as may be under the orders or at the disposition of the Treasury Department, and a junior officer of the Navy to act as Secretary to said board, whose duty it shall be under instructions from the Treasury Department to inquire into the condition of the Lighthouse Establishment of the United States, and make a general detailed report and programme to guide legislation in extending and improving our present system of construction, illumination, inspection, and superintendence.”

The Lighthouse Board resulted from this mandate, and its original members consisted of William B. Shubrick, and Samuel F. Du Pont, U.S. Navy; James Kearney, U.S. Topographical Engineers; civilian academics Alexander Dallas Bache, Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey and Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,; and Lt. Thornton Jenkins, U.S. Navy, who acted as Secretary.

The United States Lighthouse Board was the second agency of the U.S. Federal Government, under the Department of Treasury, responsible for the construction and maintenance of all lighthouses and navigation aids in the United States. The new agency was created following complaints by the shipping industry of the previous administration of lighthouses under the Treasury’s Lighthouse Establishment, which had had jurisdiction since 1791.

In 1910, the Lighthouse Board was disestablished in favor of a more civilian Lighthouse Service, under the Department of Commerce; later the Lighthouse Service was merged into the United States Coast Guard in 1939.