Exhibits
The original Keepers Quarters now serves as the museum gallery. We have several exhibits and artifacts that depict the life of a keeper and maritime history on the Great Lakes.
Other exhibits and artifacts to see at the North Point Lighthouse museum:
- A pictorial timeline that chronicles the history of the lighthouses that were located at North Point from 1855 to present.
- An exhibit about Augustin-Jean Fresnel, known for inventing the reflective/refractive Fresnel lens and for pioneering the use of “stepped” lenses to extend the visibility of lighthouses, saving unknown numbers of lives at sea.
- An exhibit that tells the stories of some of the keepers that “kept the light” at Milwaukee’s lighthouses.
- A replica of a uniform that would have been worn by the men of United States Lighthouse Service.
- The brass fog bell that was located at the Pierhead Light at the entrance of the Milwaukee Harbor from 1892 -1962.
- The telegraph and bell of the wreck of the car ferry Milwaukee, which sank in 1929 taking all 51 lives.
- A traveling library from 1893 with the original books that were carried from lighthouse to lighthouse by the USLHS tenders who supplied the light stations around Lake Michigan.
- A Lyle gun used in the rescue of mariners from ships that ran aground and a panel describing how the rescue was performed.