Shell Lamp
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1890
name: label: Donor Name
content: Romyn Hitchcock
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "This is one half of a pectern-like sea shell, which probably was used as a resevoir for oil, in which a simple wick was floated. Has a short string around the hinge joint for hanging up when not in use."
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 31.4 p. 228 of Fitzhugh, William W., and Chisato O. Dubreuil. 1999. Ainu: spirit of a northern people. [Washington, D.C.]: Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in association with University of Washington Press. Identified there: "Shell lamp. Inside the chise [house], light was provided by scallop-shell lamps (ratcako) fueled by fish or marine-mammal oil and fitted with a marsh rush or cotton rag wick."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 21 Aug 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Hokkaido (Yezo), Japan, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Ainu, Betsukai Ainu
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 022393
label: USNM Number
content: E150701-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Lamp