Model Of Traveling Winter Lamp

Item number E1109-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

FROM CARD: "FIFTH OF REAL SIZE. SEMILUNAR SHAPE, SLATE, SOME TRACES OF BURNING. ILLUS: USNM REPT. 1896; PL 10; P. 1048." SEE NMNH REGISTRAR FILE "177 FOR THE YEAR 1863".Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/103 , retrieved 12-10-2019: Lamp model. Oil lamp carved from soapstone. This item is only 9 cm long, and is described in the Smithsonian Institution's catalogue as a model of a travelling lamp, which was a small lamp carried by people when they were travelling away from their main dwellings. It also resembles lamps used in domestic settings. It has the crescent shape characteristic of oil lamps, but lacks a ledge for a wick. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/37: Lamps carved from soapstone were used for lighting and heating dwellings. Oil placed in the shallow basin was soaked up by a moss wick and set alight. Lamps used in sod houses ranged up to a metre in length. Smaller lamps around 20 cm in length were commonly used to illuminate and warm up snow houses when travelling in winter.