396 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1951 



As might be expected, the stagecoach traveler had the ultimate 

 minimmii of light. Mackay (1849, p. 213), about to ride from Mill- 

 edge ville to Macon, Ga., attempted to examine the vehicle which was 

 to take him "by the glimmering light of a tin lantern, which had the 

 peculiarity of never being precisely where it was wanted." 



Steamship lighting was glamorous by contrast. Lady Emmeline 

 Stuart Wortley (1851, p. 25) voyaged up the Hudson in "a floating 

 island of painting, marble, gilding, stained glass, velvet hangings, 

 satin draperies, mirrors in richly carved frames, and sculptured orna- 

 ments with beautiful vases of flowers, Chinese lamps of various in- 

 describable forms, arabesques, chandeliers — in short, you might fancy 

 yourself in Haroun Alraschid's palace." 



The lighting of churches was usually austere. Many churches had 

 no lights at all, while others merely had a minimum of light in the 

 form of simple sconces. The Wells Collection at Old Sturbridge 

 Village (Sturbridge, Mass.) includes a chandelier from a Baptist 

 meetinghouse, near Brunswick, Maine, that dates from about 1820. 

 This consists of a turned wooden central section, radiating spidery 

 arms of heavy iron wire which support tin candle saucers and are dec- 

 orated with tin leaves. The same collection exhibits four candelabra, 

 two in the form of a cross and two in the form of an ellipse, from a 

 Mennonite church in Pennsylvania. The Kocky Hill Meetinghouse 

 in Salisbury, Mass., still has three astral lamps suspended from over- 

 head. These were probably installed about 1830, or slightly earlier. 

 No other means of artificial light have since disturbed them. 



Domestic lighting was seldom brilliant. Harriet Martineau (1838, 

 vol. 1, p. 37) , landing in New York from England in 1838, complained 

 that in her Broadway boardinghouse bedroom the four bed posts 

 looked "as if meant to hang gowns and bonnets upon, for there was no 

 tester. The washstand was without tumbler, glass, soap, or brush 

 tray. The candlestick had no snuffers." It is to be concluded that 

 one candle was supposed to light a whole room. 



The refinement of city houses was, of course, in striking contrast 

 to the crude cabins of the frontier. Mrs. Felton (1842, pp. 36-37), 

 said that in New York "the number of superb houses is very 

 great. . . . They appear all to be built upon one plan; the chief 

 feature of which is, that the dining and drawing rooms are situated 

 on the lower floor, and so arranged, as by throwing open a large pair 

 of folding doors, to form one splendid apartment. Their furniture 

 is magnificent in the extreme." 



The lighting for so elaborate a home as these was usually on an 

 appropriate scale from the standpoint of the appearance of the fix- 

 tures. In function, however, even the more expensive gas or oil-burn- 

 ing devices left something to be desired, although they were vastly 



