Native American Water Craft in North America, Part I                

                 By John Nass, Jr.

Editor, President Mon-Yough Chapter #3

Introduction

     This edition of the journal will focus on water craft used by Native Americans. Part one of this issue will consider the kayak and the birch bark canoe, while Part II will consider the dugout canoe. Of the three, the kayak and the canoe have become recreational water craft in the Americas. While the canoe has not substantially changed except for the manufacturing components, there are numerous versions of the kayak, each form designed with a specific purpose in mind. 

     Canoes, by definition, are open-air crafts propelled through the water using paddles. In North America, Native Americans built three types of water craft: the kayak, the birch bark, and the dugout. While the dugout has a long history of usage both in Europe and the Americas, the antiquity of the kayak and the birchbark canoe is unknown, mostly due to its perishable nature. 

     While kayaks are paddled, these are not open-air shells. Kayaks consist of either a wooden and/or a bone frame across which is stretched shewn together animal skins, usually seal or walrus. The skins of these two aquatic mammals are ideal for making the covering for the kayak. One to three reinforced openings exist for the occupant(s) to sit within the craft. These crafts were used extensively for hunting seals and other small aquatic mammals and for fishing. For hunting larger game such whales and walrus and for moving supplies and people, the open-air skin boat known as the umiak was used (Bonvillain 2001). This craft was the product of a community coordinated project because of its size (16 to 30 feet in length) and the required labor to assemble the craft (the frame and the skin covering)(www.achp.gov ; www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca).

     While the umiak was designed for open, coastal sea hunting and transportation, the Kayak was designed for hunting and fishing inland lakes, rivers, and coastal waters of theArctic Ocean, the North Atlantic, and the Bering Sea ((Bonvillain 2001; Oswath 2008). In Inuktituk, the language of the Inuit people, the word kayak means “man’s boat” or “hunter’s boat.

Above: an Inuit in a one-person kayak c. 1920file:///C:/Users/John/Desktop/MP-1976.24.64%20_%20Inuit%20in%20kayak,%20about%201920_files/a328ce5649e910db2f9d75d4df3a779b.jpg

          As bands of people spread across the Artic region and eventually to Greenland, these skin-covered craft were essential in the movement of people, dogs, and supplies (Oswalth 2008). The age of the kayak and the umiak is difficult to estimate (Oswalth 2008). Artic scholars believe the umiak dates to early Inuit (Thule) times (1000 CE) in the central Arctic and appeared in Greenland, Baffin Island, Labrador, the Mackenzie Delta, Alaska and eastern Siberia. The Kayak is believed to be older, c. 2000 BCE. 

     Unlike the skin covered water craft of the artic region, the birchbark canoe was limited in its distribution to the upper Midwest, southern Canada, and the Northeast – including the St Lawrence Valley – due to the distribution of birch trees (Oswalth 2008). Again, the age of birchbark canoes is uncertain. European explorers of the St. Lawrence region encountered Native Americans in canoes in the 16^th century. Presumably the origins of canoes dates to sometime in the Woodland Period, c. 700 CE, if not earlier.

     The skills required to build birchbark canoes were passed on through generations of master builders. The frames were usually of cedar, soaked in water and bent to the shape of the canoe. The seams were waterproofed with hot spruce or pine. The shape of each canoe differed according to its intended use, as well as the traditions of the people who made it. Smaller canoes were used for hunting and for fishing in the lakes and rivers across the Northeast, while larger canoes were used by war parties

     The types of birchbark canoes used by Indigenous peoples and voyageurs differed according to its intended route and how  such cargo it was intended to carry. The famous canot du maître, on which the fur trade depended, was up to 12 m long, carried a crew of six to 12 and a load of 2,300 kg of cargo on the route from Montreal to 

Above: Building a canoe. Artwork by Lewis Parker (The Canadian Encyclopedia).   

Lake Superior in the interior of the Great Lakes region. The smaller version, the canot du hord, carried a crew of five or six and a cargo of 1,360 kg over the smaller lakes, rivers, and streams of the upperGreat Lakes region. Successful navigation of the interior rivers was not always successful. Rapids on some rivers could not be negotiated, requiring transportation canoes and cargo overland to a safer location on the river. Other times, traders took chances which did not always have a desired outcome. In the 1960s, a coordinated investigation of rivers and streams along the Ontario and Minnesota border recovered numerous brass and iron artifacts from over turned canoes in areas of rapids (Woolworth et al. 1975).

     According to Prindle 1994), bark canoes could be stored in two ways: either kept from excessive light and moisture (elevated upside-down in the shade under a cover), or completely submerged in a lake or pond with rocks used as weights.

Above: 18^th century birchbark canoe on display by the Pejepscot Historical Society, Maine.  (www.mainepubic.org) 

      One or both types of bark canoes were used in the famous Joliet and Marquette venture from St. Ignace, Michigan, to the explore the western Great Lakes region and the  upper   Mississippian River in the 1670s (Wisconsin Historical Society digital collection, 2003). 

 

Above: Shooting the rapids. Painting of the fur trade canot du maître canoe. (www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca)

    

 Listed below are some short videos of making birchbark canoes.

  https://youtu.be/46LoBsZZwok?si=nMsaFI_kKKNg9TJp

 http://youtu.be/k2leKfPyBbU 

https://youtu.be/PQnM3YawP-Y?si=VVNKoNlKNjEASQGo

References

Bonvillain, Nancy
2001 Native Nations: Cultures and Histories of Native North America. Prentice Hall, Publishers.
 

Oswalth, Wendell H.
2008  This Land Was Theirs: A study of Native North American. Oxford University Press.
 

Prindle, Tara
1994  NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art.(http://www.nativetech.org)
 

Woolworth, Alan R., Douglas A. Birk, Robert C. Wheeler, and Walter A. Kenyon
1975  Voices from the Rapids: An Underwater Search for Fur Trade Artifacts, 1960-1973.
           Minnesota Historical Archaeological Series No. 3., Publications of the Minnesota
           Historical Society, Saint Paul.

 THE VALUE OF RECOGNITION, Part II

John Nass, Jr. Editor,  President Mon-Yough Chapter #3 and 

Judy Durista, Treasurer, Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology

  Introduction

     The society grants four awards that recognize individual achievement. These many or may not be presented at the annual meeting. Three of these, the Life-Time Achievement, J. Alden Mason, and the Archey emphasize longevity of service, while the Shrader/George Youth Award, recognizes the achievements of young adults under the age of 18 years in age. 

     As mentioned in the previous issue of the Journal, this instalment answers the question why do these awards exist and why they are named for individual?  To help answer these two questions, Judy Durista has graciously agreed to discuss the Frances Dorrance Award and why it was created to acknowledge her legacy. I in turn will tackle the Mason and Witthoft Awards.

      The Mason Award recognizes the career of Dr. John Alden Mason (1885-1967). He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1907 and his doctorate from the University of California, Berkley in 1911. His dissertation was about the Salinan Amerindian group in California. Between 1911 and 1922 he conducted ethnographic and linguistic studies of California Native American groups and the Puerto Ricab in Puerto Rico. In 1922, he conducted his first archaeological research, a site survey in Columbia, South America. From c. 1923 until 1926 John was an assistant curator at the Field Museum of Natural History, New York City (Means 2023). Between 1911 and 1926, he had the opportunity to study with Alfred Krober (Berkley) and scholarly interactions with Franz Boas (Columbia) while at the Field Museum (Kidder and Satterthwaite 1968). 

     In 1926 he accepted a curator position with the University Museum, the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, John conducted extensive archaeological research in Mexico and South America, especially Peru (Means 2023; Kidder and Satterthwaite 1968). In 1928/29, together with Frances Dorrance and other like mined individuals, they founded the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology. John served as its first president (1929-1930).

         John was highly respected by students and his colleagues at Penn. He was a member of numerous professional societies, local, state, national, and foreign, and at one time or another was an officer in most of the, including the presidency of the Society for American Archaeology. In the 1940s, he was the editor of the American Anthropologist (Schwartz 2017). He retired from that position in 1958, but continued to stay active at the museum and in local organizations (Kidder and Satterthwaite 1968; Schwartz 2017). When the officers of the SPA created an award to recognize a professional archaeologist and her/his career as an educator and contributor to the vitality of the society, naming the award for J. Alden Mason was an easy choice.  

    The Witthoft Award recognizes the career of John  Gerard Witthoft (1921-1993), former professor ofAnthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, who passed in 1993 after teaching for 20 years. John’s areas of expertise were Native American Ethnology, pre-contact archaeology, and colonial archaeology. He received his undergraduate in Biology and English from the State University of New York at Albany in 1944, and he earned a M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 (Cotter 1996). 

     Starting in 1948, John worked at the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg as chief curator and state anthropologist, a post he held until 1966. During this same period, John also served as the state archaeologist for Pennsylvania, as well as serving as the president of the SPA in 1962.

      During his tenure at the state museum, John was a one-man-band/cheerleader, assisting chapters with excavations, visiting chapter meetings, speaking at whatever group meeting that asked for him, and encouraging advocationlists to do careful field work and keep reliable records. According to Cotter, he never asked for, nor accepted a fee for speaking.

      Significant excavations supervised by John included excavation at the Sheep Rock Shelter in Huntington County and at the 18^th /early 19^th century historic Ephrata Cloister in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. He also studied the Paleoindian materials from the Shoop site in Dauphin County.

      John continued his ethnographic/ethnohistoric research of Native Americans while at Penn, especially his work with the Eastern Cherokee, the Delaware, the Cataba, and member nations of the New York Iroquois. His interests also included the colonial fur trade (Cotter 1996).  

      John’s career was summarized by John Cotter, a friend and colleague. These quotes are taken from Mason’s obituary published in American Antiquity in 1996. Cotter states “To be singularly admired by nonprofessional archaeologists, extraordinarily popular with university students as a gifted and generous teacher, and accepted by his peers in archaeology as a scholar and authority, were achievements uniquely associated with John Witthoft. . . His pony tail, graying hair, snuff, indifferent dress, and grand disdain of fashion never interfered with is willingness to share what he knew in order to help others. ” (1996:279).

     The Frances Dorrance Award is given to the Chapter of the SPA that has recorded the most new sites with the Pennsylvania Archaeology Site Survey at the State Museum, Harrisburg, PA, for each calendar year. While the description is simple and straightforward, the woman it is named for was anything but. For her time, 1877 to 1973, Miss Dorrance’s accomplishments produced significant milestones and for a woman of her time, she was quite remarkable.

      She was a descendent of one of the oldest and distinguished families of the Wyoming Valley and of Col. George Dorrance who died during the Battle of Wyoming during the American Revolutionary War.

      She distinguished herself throughout her lifetime with this partial list of accomplishments:

·                Graduate of Vassar College Class of 1900, Phi Beta Kappa

·                Graduate in Library Sciences, New York School of Library Sciences, Albany

·                Noted Scholar at the University of Berlin, Columbia University and the Marine Biological                       Laboratory in Massachusetts

·                Library positions at Trenton, NJ, Osterhout Library in Wilkes-Barre, PA

·                Director of the Wyoming Historical Society (1922)

           Head librarian of the Hoyt Library (1938-1952)

·               Head of the Wilkes College Library circulation department

·               Member and Secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

·               Served on boards of the Pennsylvania Folklore Society, Back Mountain Library, and others

·               Made local historic preservation and archaeology her life’s work through the programs                            she helped create under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration to put academics              to work during the Depression.

·               Named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania

     The Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology came into being by way of her efforts and collaboration with others who realized that Native American presence in Pennsylvania was being lost without note or history with site destruction amid development and settlement progress. She initiated the Indian Survey sending out 13,000 survey letters to all factions of the public from her position as executive director of the Luzerne County Historical Society. This was the first statewide archaeological survey in Pennsylvania.

      The Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology came into being by way of her efforts and collaboration with others who realized that Native American presence in Pennsylvania was being lost without note or history with site destruction amid development and settlement progress. She initiated the Indian Survey sending out 13,000 survey letters to all factions of the public from her position as executive director of the Luzerne County Historical Society. This was the first statewide archaeological survey in Pennsylvania.  In March 1924 the survey was sent to museums, historical 

Above: Frances Dorrance with her J. Alden Mason Award from the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, awarded in 1970.

societies, the boy  scouts, and local authorities throughout Eastern Pennsylvania. The purpose was to research written records of Native Americans, preserve and arrange collections for future generations, and to make an initial effort to preserve the surviving remains of Native Americans and scientifically organize and study them.

      In 1926, the Indian Survey expanded to include western Pennsylvania, and became the first statewide survey in Pennsylvania. (Note the partners in Volume 1 of the Pennsylvania Archaeologist). In 1927 Miss Dorrance asked the state government to form an archaeological commission. That didn’t happen. Instead, she was appointed to the State Historic Commission (PHC)(now PHMC), which formed an archaeology committee to complete the survey.

Over 1,900 sites were documented across the state (see below).

     The start of the Pennsylvanian Archaeological Site Survey (PASS) came into being as a solution to the massive job of compiling and maintaining the data from the survey. Frances Dorrance, along with J. Alden Mason, organized the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology to keep the survey going into the future. The SPA chapter #11 is named after Frances Dorrance. J. Alden Mason served as the Society’s first President with Frances Dorrance as Secretary. She later served as SPA President in 1934-1935.

      The information about Frances Dorrance came from a number of sources including, Frances Dorrance’s obituary and Wyoming Historical and Geological Society which has become the Luzerne County Historical Society as well as the PHMC blogs and online reporting and ,of course, early issues of the Pennsylvania Archaeologist. The names on the SPA awards and scholarships were real people who devoted their lives to the mission of the SPA giving their time and talents to a purpose outside of themselves and were immortalized with their names on awards that outlived them. We need to remind ourselves that they were people like us and perhaps be inspired.

 References 

Cotter JL. John Gerard Witthoft 1921–1993. American Antiquity. 1996;61(2):279-284. doi:10.1017/S0002731600051908

 II, Alfred Kidder, and Satterthwaite, Linton. "J. Alden Mason." Expedition Magazine 10, no. 2 (January, 1968): -. Accessed May 13, 2025. https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/j-alden-mason/

 

Means, Bernard K.
2023  Start the Presses? John Alden Mason as Mesoamericanist and a Reluctant New Deal                                Archaeologist in the 1930s. In Sins of Our Ancestors (and of Ourselves): Confronting                              Archaeological Legacies, edited by April Beisaw, David E. Witt, Katie Kirakosian, and Ryan                    Wheeler, pp. 81-91. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association:                        Volume 34, Issue 1. American Anthropological Association.

 Schwartz, David A.. "John Alden Mason." Expedition Magazine 59, no. 1 (April, 2017): -. Accessed May 13, 2025. https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/john-alden-mason/

The Value of Recognition

                       THE VALUE OF RECOGNITION

                                                                            By John Nass, Jr.

                                                        Editor, President Mon-Yough Chapter #3

     Introduction

     For millennia societies around the world have developed means to recognize personal achievement. Such recognition can take many forms, such as metals, awards, titles, promotions, and even having one’s name listed on a plaque often seen at restaurants reserved for employee of the month.

     Recognition is a form of acknowledgement given to an individual or to a group for the successful completion of a task or some sort of demonstrable achievement. However, for the individual, recognition by one’s peers is a form of proclamation of achievement. It can represent a milestone in the career of an individual, or the accomplishments of a career.

     One such organization that bestows group and individual awards is the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology. Two types of group awards are given to chapters. The first type recognizes the recruitment, and the second recognizes the number new sites recorded with the state and/or updated. Both are specialty awards and are non-competitive. It is possible for two chapters to tie for the number of new sites registered with the state and/or updated, as well the number of members. Both awards bear the names of individuals and were created by the society to recognize their outstanding contributions in the history of the SPA.

     The Whittoff Award is given to the chapter(s) that recruited the most new SPA members and/or reinstating the highest number of delinquent state members in the previous calendar year. The Mon-Yough Chapter has won the award twice since 2012, when it was reinstated. The award is determined by the SPA Treasurer and the Secretary.      The award recognizes the career of Dr. John Witthoft, former professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, who passed in 1993 after teaching for 20 years. Dr. Witthoff’s areas of expertise were Native American Ethnology, pre-contact archaeology, and colonial archaeology. Prior to his tenure at Penn, Dr. Witthoff was the state archaeologist for Pennsylvania from 1948-1966.  

     The Frances Dorrance Award is given to a chapter(s) that recorded the most new sites and/or submitted the most site updates with the Pennsylvania Archaeology Site Survey (PASS) at the State Historic Preservation Office in the previous calendar year. The award is determined by the SHPO staff.      The award is named for Frances Dorrance, a remarkable woman who championed local history and the preservation of pre-contact Native American sites and collections from those sites for scientific study. Aware of the enormity of the effort needed to insure archaeological sites and collections were preserved for future study, Dorrance in collaboration with J. Alden Mason, organized the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology in 1929. The award was created in 1976 to honor her memory and her substantial contribution to Pennsylvania history and archaeology. 

     The society confers four awards that recognize individual achievement. These awards may or may not be presented at the annual meeting. Three of these, the Life-Time Achievement, J. Alden Mason, and Archey Award, emphasize longevity of service, while the Shrader/George Youth Award, recognizes the achievements of young adults under the age of 18 years of age.      

     The Life-Time Achievement Award created in 2008, recognizes the career achievements of an individual who can be a professional archaeologist in Pennsylvania, a professional in a closely related science, or an avocational archaeologist with at least 20 years of outstanding service to the archaeology of Pennsylvania, and/or historic preservation, and must be an exemplary proponent of the mission of the SPA. The award was created in 2008.      The J. Alden Mason Award recognizes the educational achievements of Dr. J. Alden Mason, a professor at University of Pennsylvania, who helped organize the SPA in 1929. The award, created in 1970, is given to a professional archaeologist or a professional in a related science, who holds either a Master’s degree or P.D. in Archaeology or a related science. The award acknowledges the career of an individual and her/his personal impact upon the education of students and advocationlists and SPA members, as well as encouraging advocationlists and SPA members in the proper usage of field methods in the investigation of archaeological sites.

     The Archey Award is the oldest of the individual awards given by the SPA. Created in 1958, the award recognizes the achievements of an advocationlists who is a member of the SPA. The recipient of the award is an individual who has given unselfishly of her/his time over a appreciable period, to the furtherance of Pennsylvania’s archaeology through public outreach, publications, offices held, number and kinds of sites recorded and/or excavated, and work with students to teach them proper field methods for site excavation. 

     The Shrader/George Youth Award is given to a SPA member who is 18 years old or younger. The award recognizes their accomplishments, their character, and their unselfish effort towards the furtherance of Pennsylvania archaeology. Recipients must be a member of a chapter, as well as the society.

     The legacies of Witthoff, Mason and Dorrance and their impact on the archaeology of Pennsylvania merit further discussion. For this reason, the second edition of Volume 5 will be devoted to narratives about these individuals and why the awards were created to honor them. 

Lanterns Part Two

 

This issue of the Journal by guest author Matt Cumberledge features information on the Nail City Lantern Company located in Wheeling, West Virginia. This issue is part two of Matt's overview of lanterns.

A Wheeling Industry

Dunkard Creek has often been an important part in the history of Greene County, an essential waterway, a way to navigate and connect to the outside world.   Follow Dunkard long enough and you’ll reach the Monongahela River, run it north to Pittsburgh and there you will find the Ohio River. It could easily be argued that the Ohio is one of the most important rivers in American History, second only to the Mighty Mississippi, and there, in Pittsburgh, the Ohio forms from the confluence of the waters of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers.   From Pittsburgh, one of the first major Cities you’ll come across on the Ohio is Wheeling West Virginia.

Wheeling, an old Town, first settled 1769 by Ebenezer Zane was originally called Zanesburg, a few other families would settle there as well, including the Wetzels, Shepherds, and McCollochs.   More folks would come to live in the area after the opening of the Northwest Territory, and it would become an important spot for those wishing to continue migrating westward.   In 1793, Ebenezer Zane would divide his land into lots, and Wheeling was officially born.

The Ohio River would be an extremely important part of Wheeling, allowing travel and easy access to Pittsburgh to the East and the Mississippi River to the west.  Like all River Towns the Ohio was Wheeling’s very lifeblood.  As time progressed, and the Industrial Revolution added a new layer of life to the region, the Ohio River would play an even more important role. 

Throughout the 1860s and 70s, industry would blossom in Wheeling, mostly along the banks of the Ohio, and the town would prosper.   Many individuals would find the opportunity to start business and forge a successful path for themselves in the ever-changing world of the late 19^th century.  One of these men was Archibald Woods Paull.

Paull was born in Wheeling on November 26^th, 1845, a son of prominent citizen and Judge, James Paull.  He received his early education at the Linsly Institute and later at Washington and Jefferson College, in Washington PA where he graduated in 1865.  After his schooling was completed, A. W. Paull began working in the Book and Stationary Industry that had long been established in Wheeling, however this is a pursuit that did not suit him well, so, in 1877 Paull would establish his own company, but in a completely different trade.   Nail City Lantern Company would be his business, Nail City being a common nickname for Wheeling as one of the major industries was the manufacturing of Cut Nails, it was often said at the time that Wheeling was the “Cut Nail Capital of the World.”  When the company was formed, it initially employed 20 individuals and produced primarily Hand (common use) Lanterns, Railroad Lanterns, Tin Capped Mason Jars and small incidental items.   At this time the company was located at 1212 Main Street in Wheeling WV, in a small four-story brick building (Figure 1).                                                                                                  

Figure 1. An Early Image of the Original Nail City Lantern Building

             Business for Paull would boom, and the Company would expand adding more                           employees and moving several times until 1892 when they would settle in their final location in              Wheeling at 2106-2116 Water Street (Figure 2).   The Company would remain here until 1956.   The 1890s were particularly exciting times for Nail City Lantern Company, several new models of Lanterns would be produced for the Market, a new innovative design, easy to stamp and assemble, and with a new mechanism to raise the globe.   This would be called the  “Crank Tubular Lantern,” a popular item at the time and one of the most desirable lanterns to be found by collectors in modern times. 

Joseph Bokanoski of Vernon Connecticut has been collecting Nail City Items for over 10 years and has amassed one of the best collections of Nail City Lantern Companies products known in existence today.  Joe’s collection includes Lanterns from all periods of the Companies History, Mason Jars, Meat Hooks manufactured by Nail City Lantern Company, Marked Crates and Boxes, Signs and Catalogs, and of course many examples of the Crank Tubular Lantern (Figure 2).  His collection and knowledge have been a huge source of reference for this article.

                        Figure 2. Bokanoski Collection of Nail City/Wheeling Stamping Items. 

Throughout the 19^th Century, the Company would prosper, in 1894, the name would change to Nail City Stamping, with Archibald W. Paull still president of the Company, but on December 2^nd, 1898, Paull would pass from this life, and the company would pass on to his son, Archibald Woods Paull II.   The Companies name would again change, no longer called Nail City Stamping, the company would now be known as Wheeling Stamping Company, though still housed in the same 4 story brick structure on Water Street where it has been for the previous six years.

Lantern Manufacturing would change, and simpler more affordable yet still high-quality lanterns would be created, and other tin stamped items were also regularly manufactured.   In WWI the company would make metal mess kits for soldiers on the front and may have possibly supplied our local troops that fought in WWI from Company K out of Waynesburg.

Still the company would thrive under the leadership of Archibald W. Paull II, who would remain in control of the company for the rest of his life.   His last great act would be overseeing the 1956 move of the company to the former Packer Trucking Company Building in the Warwood Area of Wheeling (Figure 3).   Archibald W. Paull II would pass on the 2^nd of December 1957, 59 years to the day after the death of his father.   Wheeling Stamping would survive for many more years however, and finally dissolved on September 4^th 1990.

                        Figure 3. Wheeling Stamping Building, Wheeling, West Virginia.

Products made by Wheeling Stamping, and especially in its early form Nail City Lantern Company are now highly collectable.  Nail City Lanterns can fetch large prices at auction and their Early Mason jars are very desirable amongst collectors, and sadly there are not an abundance of these items to be found, even locally in the region where they were manufactured.   But should you ever come across something marked NCL, WS or Wheeling Stamping, or even a Paull’s Lantern that was made by Wheeling Stamping Company, know that you have found an important and interesting piece of our regional history.

                        Figure 4.  A Nail City Lantern at the site where it was produced about 1896.

      

References:

Lanterns that Lit Our World, Volumes 1 & 2
Anthony Hobson 1991, 1996
Goldn Hill Press

Interview with Joseph Bokanoski
Vernon CT, 2025

FaceBook Group
Tubular Lantern Collectors

Website: Ontario Lantern, The Drew Goff Collection
https://www.ontariolantern.ca/

Website:  W. T. Kirkman Lanterns
https://lanternnet.com/

 

The History and Identification of Lanterns Part One

 

            Lanterns have a magical charm and attraction about them, regardless of the material – wax, animal fat, whale oil, kerosene, or the modern oil – used to illuminate the device. This issue of the Journal and a companion article on lanterns are written by guest contributor Matt Cumberledge, executive director of the Greene County Historical Society and Museum.

 

The History and Identification of Lanterns

 

Not so very long ago, electric lighting was merely a dream and something unobtainable for many living in the Rural United States, even into the 1930s and 1940s there were many homes and farms that lacked the necessary infrastructure to flip a switch to illuminate their world.   As such, kerosene lanterns were, and in some instances remain to be, a huge part of our culture.

The first lanterns used candles to provide lighting.    In the 18^th Century and before, many Candle Lanterns were made out of sheet tin, or copper, and punched with holes forming various designs, allowing light to penetrate.   Wooden lanterns were also used and were common well into the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras.   These wooden lanterns were often simple frames, with glass panels on each of the 4 sides and a covered vent on top.

 

                

                                     

     Whale Oil Lanterns would begin to arrive on the scene in the 1840’s and become quite common in the 1850’s and 60’s.   It’s very easy to identify a Whale Oil Lantern by it’s burner.   Whale Oil Burners often have one, two or three, pointed tips with the end removed that would hold the wick and provide a source of fuel for the flame.   As Whale Population dwindled due to over harvesting for Whale Oil, Kerosene would be refined and developed and quickly become King.

 

The First Kerosene lanterns were made in the 1860’s based on patents by John Henry Irwin and Joseph B. Stetson.    By 1868, companies such as R. E. Dietz (Still in business today and making some of the same models as they were over a century ago) Chicago Lantern Company and others would perfect the design of the Tubular Kerosene Lantern.

`           The First Kerosene Lanterns were very simple in design, at the base was a small fount to hold fuel, and perhaps the most important feature were the tubes that formed a rough rectangular or trapezoidal shape.   See Diagram No. 1.   These tubes, which could either be square in cross section, circular or even “D” Shaped, are what kept a steady design of air feeding the flame.    This design was known as “The Hot Blast Design” due to the fact that combustion air was recycled to keep air flowing to the burner.   This design would prove to be very successful, with many different companies utilizing this design and competing in the open market to create the best lantern.     

                                                               Design Diagram No. 1

                                  

             By the 1890’s the Hot Blast Design had been perfected, and many companies such as R.E. Dietz, SG&L Co, C.T. Ham Manufacturing, Buhl Stamping, Nail City Lantern Company, Winfield Manufacturing, Meyrose, and many many others all had their take on the hot blast design.    Most of these companies had their own unique design on how to lift the globe to access the burner for wick trimming and lighting.   Some used a lever lift on one of the side tubes that when operated lifted the globe, others would opt for a top lift design with a tab on top of the smoke bell above the globe that could be pulled to raise the globe.    Many manufacturers had several different models with different lift designs, there was definitely a lot of competition to create the perfect lantern.

Undoubtedly the most popular hot blast lantern of the 1890’s and the first quarter of the 20^th century was the Dietz Victor, which was introduced into production sometime around 1892, and it would be produced well into the 1930s.    The Victor was a basic Hot Blast Lantern design that was toughly built, with a lever lift on the side, that was not only practical but affordable.   One can still commonly find a Dietz Victor in Antique Shops, Thrift Stores, Flea Markets and Online Auctions today.   

 The Victor however would fall out of Favor to the Dietz Monarch by the 1930’s.   The Monarch was a nearly identical lantern with only one exception.   In stead of the tubes being square, they tubes were round, made in two sections, each stamped from a sheet of tin and crimped together.   This design was more cost effective than the older square tube design.   The Diest Monarch is the only Hot Blast Lantern still in production today.

In the late 1880’s another lantern design was developed, the Cold Blast.   See Diagram 2.  It would take a while for the Cold Blast design to take off, as from a manufacturing stand point it is a bit more complicated, but the design utilized fresh cold air, not recycled combustion air from the lantern itself, to feed fresh oxygen to the burner resulting in a much brighter and whiter flame.   

                                                             Design Diagram No. 2

                                      

When we imagine what a lantern looks like, a Cold Blast lantern is often what we envision.    By 1900, many manufacturers were producing their own version of a Cold Blast lantern.   Unlike the earlier Hot Blast designs, most Cold Blasts tended to be similar in appearance and nearly identical in operation.    Early cold blast designs experimented with different lift designs, but by the late 1910’s or 1920’s nearly all were identical with a lever lift mounted to the side.

 See Diagrams 3 below for a diagram from a Canadian Lantern Manufacturer that gives an over view of lantern anatomy and various features of a good lantern.

Image File Reference:

0001.JPG                    18^th Century Candle Lantern
0002.JPG                    Wood Frame, Glass Paneled Candle Lantern
0003.JPG                    Whale Oil Lantern
0004.JPG                    A Early Kerosene Lantern, made by Dietz Circa 1870
0005.JPG                    A Dietz Victor Lantern, Circa 1896
0006.JPG                    A Dietz Crescent Lantern, Circa 1915 a typical Cold Blast Lantern

References:

Lanterns that Lit Our World, Volumes 1 & 2
Anthony Hobson 1991, 1996
Golden Hill Press

 

Interview with Joseph Bokanoski
Vernon CT, 2025

 

FaceBook Group
Tubular Lantern Collectors

 

Website: Ontario Lantern, The Drew Goff Collection
https://www.ontariolantern.ca/

 

Website:  W. T. Kirkman Lanterns
https://lanternnet.com/