1881
Perils of the Coast—The Life-Saving Service
As a teenager, Milton J. Burns voyaged with explorer and artist William Bradford to the Arctic. Familiar with peril at sea, Burns later became the main chronicler of the US Life-Saving Service in the illustrated press, bringing the image of the hardworking surfman to a wide audience. Traveling to Atlantic stations on assignment in 1879, he made a visual record of the increasingly professionalized brigades. In his spread for Harper’s Weekly, Burns shows a life line rescue, a manned life boat, a surfman with ignited signal flare, and a crew firing a Lyle gun to send a rope out to an offshore wreck.
This record is part of an ongoing effort to share accurate and evolving information. If you notice anything we should improve, we welcome your feedback at [email protected]
Images on this site are shared for educational use. For image rights, permissions, or to learn more about image rights and access, email [email protected]