Description:
Tin oil lamp with one wick on top of the round, ribbed oil container, over a round, ribbed shaft, attached strap handle, and large round drip pan. The donor, Captain Edgar Miller Williams (1889-1986), was the son of Admiral Clarence Stewart Williams (1863-1951) who married Anna M. Miller (1860-1955), the daughter of Dr. J. M. Miller of Springfield, Ohio, in 1888; his grandfather was Orson Bennet Williams (1834-1912), who was born in Ashfield and married Pamelia L. Floyd of Springfield, Ohio, in 1862; his great-grandfather was Samuel Barnard Williams (1803-1884) of Deerfield who married Mary A. Bennet (d.1839) of Ashfield, Massachusetts, in 1834, and Caroline Johnson (d.1885) in 1844; his great-great grandfather was Elijah Williams (1767-1832) who married Hannah Barnard (1772-1853), daughter of Samuel Barnard (1721-1788) of Deerfield, in 1803; and his great-great-great grandfather was Dr. Thomas Williams (1718-1775) of Deerfield. This branch of the Williams family is also related to Elizabeth Williams Champney (1850-1922), a well-known writer of her period, who was the half-sister of Orson Bennet Williams and the wife of the artist, James Wells Champney (1843-1903). The manufacture of oil lamps in America, which began in the 1820's, reached its peak in the 1840s and 1850s; they were made in a variety of shapes, and had burners with either one or two wicks for whale oil or "burning fluid." From originally burning lard, fish, and whale oils, the burning fluids for oil lamps later became petroleum (found in 1814, dug from wells), camphene, and kerosene.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+71.074 |
