Sunday, October 9, 2022
Speaker: Dr. William Rawlings, Award-winning author and retired physician
Topic: “Lighthouses of the Georgia Coast”
Dr. Rawlings, retired physician and award-winning author, will share fascinating stories from his latest book on the historic lighthouses along Georgia’s coast. Georgia’s barrier islands have five existing lighthouses, each with its own unique style, history, and role in events over the past decades and centuries. The lecture will also include stories of lighthouse keepers and the importance of lighthouse structures during the Civil War.
After the lecture, our speaker will sign books and visit with guests. The Old School History Museum is delighted to welcome back Dr. Rawlings to our lecture series! As always, the museum’s presentations are free, but donations are greatly appreciated.
Please stay to tour the museum and enjoy light refreshments after the lecture.
About the Book: Lighthouses of the Georgia Coast
Once an essential part of nautical navigation and commerce, the world's lighthouses have become historical relics of days past, their primary function now replaced by modern technology. Yet these magnificent structures continue to fascinate us, not only for their intrinsic beauty, but also as monuments to our shared history, and as symbols of hope and salvation to those cast adrift on the stormy seas of life. From the mid-eighteenth through the early twentieth centuries, the waterways of coastal Georgia from the St. Marys River in the south to the Savannah River in the north were an integral part of the state's economy, vital to the trade in cotton, rice, timber, naval stores, and other products shipped to ports in America and around the world.
Georgia's barrier islands are today the site of five existing lighthouses, each with its own unique style, history, and role in events over the past decades and centuries. In addition, focusing on these beacons, Lighthouses of the Georgia Coast reviews the basics of lighthouse design and construction, the role, lore and legacy of lighthouse keepers, the significance of lighthouses as strategic structures during the turbulent days of the Civil War, and more.
Richly illustrated with both contemporary and historical photos, the reader or visitor will gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of Georgia's lighthouses and of similar structures on coasts and waterways around the world.
About William Rawlings - Author of Southern Stories
William Rawlings was born, raised, and lives in Sandersville, Georgia, home to his family for more than two centuries. His first five books were suspense novels set in rural Georgia. Turning then to non-fiction, he is the author of three subsequent works of Georgia (and Southern) history published by Mercer University Press. His books consistently garner excellent reviews, and he has been the recipient of a number of writing awards. One constant theme in Rawlings's writing is a well-defined sense of place, especially in relation to the landscape of rural Georgia. He states, “One of life’s greatest pageants is the continuity of life in small Southern towns. Characters wander in and out, plying their intrigues and playing their roles, both major and minor. There’s hardly a need for fiction, as the truth is oftentimes more bizarre. What more inspiration could a writer ask for?” This approach to the floating opera of Southern life adds dimension and depth to Rawlings's books. His most recent works include a suspense novel set in Savannah titled "The Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes," and a true-crime thriller "Six Inches Deeper. Both were published by Mercer University Press in 2019 and 2020, respectively. An eleventh book, "Lighthouses of the Georgia Coast," was named as the Finalist for the 2022 Georgia Author of the Year Awards.
To learn more, see the author's website: www.williamrawlings.com.