Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, near Boston Harbor, as depicted by Alfred R. Waud (1828-1891) in Harper's Weekly, July 10, 1869. After the collapse of the first lighthouse at Minot's Ledge in 1851, Jospeh Henry, first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and other members of the United States Lighthouse Board oversaw construction of a new granite one by army engineer Barton Stone Alexander. Completed in 1860, the $300,000 structure was considered a marvel of engineering.