A Light in the Dark

December. What comes to mind when you think of December? Cold, maybe some snow, Christmas, winter break. What about dark? December is host to the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. Today, with our electricity it’s not such a big deal when it gets dark early. We may not like it but we make up for it by turning on lights. Even if the power goes out we still have flashlights. Imagine not having electricity. All you have for warmth and light is fire. Fire places, maybe a wood-burning oven, candles, and lanterns. Now imagine it getting dark at 6pm and all you have to work by is firelight. I love candles, I admit it, but it is awfully hard to do anything by candlelight. The pioneers to this area would do work and have their family time in the evenings by the fire’s glow. When you have candles it is very hard to adjust the amount of light being projected so this is where lanterns like the one from the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection become a very useful tool.

The lantern on display in the South Gallery is an oil lantern, a Feuerhand No. 280 made in Germany. An oil lantern obviously uses oil to produce a steady, constant flame. This flame is then protected from the wind and elements by the glass enclosure. Our lantern has a metal frame on which the bottom is hollow to hold the oil. The wick reaches into the oil and is adjustable in the glass enclosure. The metal frame reaches completely around the glass enclosure to hold it in place and has vent holes at the top. Lanterns in general can be made of different materials. For example, many cultures use paper lanterns. Lanterns also can have different types of fuel: gas, candles, electric, etc. They also can have many different uses: decoration, guiding, signals, general illumination.

Lanterns, and specifically oil lanterns, have been around for thousands of years and are, in fact, still used today. The design of lanterns has allowed them to remain a good source of light, especially in the dark winter months. As I have said, though, lanterns can be very beautiful and used for decoration so it is more than a utilitarian object. Come on down to the Western Heritage Museum Complex and check out this very versatile object in our South Gallery.