Students have always needed task lighting for their studies. This brass oil lamp from circa 1884 may have been a solution for the late 19th century student.
Although we do not know if this lamp was ever used at Miami, it was manufactured by Post & Co. in Cincinnati. Users could operate the lamp by filling the reservoir (on the right of this photo) with lamp oil. The oil would feed to the lamp on the left and create a flame by which to read. Many such items were equipped with shades to diffuse the light. Other styles could be fit with semi-reflective rings to focus the light on the task at hand.
In The Miami Years, Walter Havighurst describes a scene in which a lamp such as this might have been used. When “New Miami” reopened in 1885 following “Old Miami’s” closing post-Civil War, students found that “the old dorms had not changed from earlier years.” He describes students lugging foodstuffs and firewood up to their rooms, where they “cooked their meals on iron stoves and studied by the glimmer of oil lamps.” Should all of that hauling make a student wish to clean himself up, he could avail himself of the dorm’s “galvanized tub and a battered pail.” The necessary facilities, of course, were outhouses. Not always the romantic picture we envision.
Source Consulted:
Havighurst, Walter. The Miami Years, 1809-1984. New York: Putnam, 1984.