Historical Society Working Online
Overtime to Share Twin Lights' Story
For six decades, the Twin Lights Historical Society thrived where other
organizations sometimes struggled, drawing a steady stream of
visitors with the spectacular panoramic vista from its two towers, as
well as a superb small museum and eclectic museum store. When the
COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020 and the state ordered the lighthouse
to shut its doors, the historical society found itself adrift, with no obvious
way to remain relevant and engage new visitors.
dug into the society’s immense collection of nautical, lifesaving and New
Jersey cultural artifacts and began posting several images each week on
Facebook. The society’s curator, Joanne Sutton, and her volunteer corps
had photographed and catalogued every item, so there was plenty to
choose from. It was purely experimental, he admits.
“I wanted to see if people actually valued what we do here,” Stewart
explained. “From mid-March to the end of June, we had 50,000 views
and a ton of shares, so obviously that told us people wanted to stay connected
to us and one another, which was gratifying. But there did not
seem to be any rhyme or reason to what people liked.”
At the February board meeting of the Twin Lights Historical Society,
Stewart, an author and historian with a background in branding and
marketing, reported what happened next: The society launched a daily
Facebook series titled “Twin Lights People,” which featured mini-bios of
individuals with a connection to the lighthouse—often direct, yet just as
often tenuous.
“That was part of the fun, seeing how people from Babe Ruth
to Thomas Edison to Robert E. Lee to Isaac Asimov were linked to Twin
Lights,” he said. “The guy who invented the Vulcan ‘live long and prosper’
greeting for Star Trek hung out in Highlands. Just a ton of great stories.
People also rediscovered dozens of local legends and shared their memories.
No surprise, the bootleggers around here were especially popular.
We received a lot of help and input from the legion of historians who live
in the area, which was very helpful.”
The Twin Lights People series drew more than 350,000 views between
July and October, not including the hundreds of “shares” it generated,
and the society’s social media following increased by more than
24 APRIL 2021 | TheJournalNJ.com
25 percent, enabling the organization to keep in touch with its fans and
update them as reopening day approaches.
In November, the society began devoting its Facebook page to
lighthouse keepers around the world and their remarkable stories in a
series titled “Jeepers Keepers.” That campaign is closing in on 100,000
Facebook views and, according to Stewart, winning new followers in the
broader lighthouse-lover community. The Jeepers Keepers posts will continue
every few days at least through summer.
Since Twins Lights closed its doors to the public last March, people
have “visited” the lighthouse via social media around a half-million
times. Needless to say, when the site reopens, the society will continue to
engage fans with fun facts and photos and compelling storytelling.
“What do Madleine Albright, Tom Carvel, Johnny Weissmuller and
Albert Einstein have in common?” Stewart asked. “They all watched the
Twin Lights poke above the horizon as they entered New York harbor as
immigrants. That’s a powerful common denominator, and we want to tell
the stories of the immigrant experience as it relates to this area. I know
they are worth telling because I have seen how emotional people get
when they climb the towers here and realize they are looking down on
the moment their ancestors knew they had made it to their new home.”
At the February board meeting, the society agreed to launch this asyet
unnamed Facebook series in the spring or summer and is planning to
involve local schools in the research and writing of these mini-bios. It will
be a small piece of the society’s larger plan to involve more young people
in the site through new interactive exhibits and family activities.
The entire Twin Lights People and Jeepers Keepers series can be
found on the Society’s Facebook page or by searching for the hashtags
#TwinLIghtsPeople and #JeepersKeepers. A link to the Facebook page can
be found at TwinLightsLighthouse.org.
The Twin Lights National Historic Landmark site is open to visitors every
day from 9 am to 4:30 pm. During COVID-19, the buildings are closed
to the public. When the site reopens, the indoor exhibits will be open
from Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm. Admission is free. All
donations, as well as proceeds from the Museum Store, fund new exhibits
and special projects.
/TheJournalNJ.com
/TwinLightsLighthouse.org