Lighting in the Revolutionary Era

If we could travel through time and peek into John Dunlap’s print shop as the first editions of the Declaration of Independence were being printed in the early hours of the morning on July 4^th, 1776, we might be surprised to see how dark the shop was. While there are no records to confirm precisely how Dunlap’s shop was arranged, we know that Colonial Americans relied on candles and basic oil lamps for lighting after dark. By modern standards, the light provided by these devices is hardly strong enough to work by, and especially not for doing detailed work like setting type.

Before advances in artificial lighting, most people avoided working after sundown. Historian Lawrence Wroth notes, “The lack of proper illumination gave (the printer) a short working day in the winter months...” and explains, “...composition by candlelight must have been difficult for the printer and unsatisfactory to the customer.”[1] Even in modern day print shops with strong overhead lighting, it can be tricky to distinguish between the letters in a font and mix-ups are to be expected. This is, in fact, the origin of the phrase “Mind your P’s and Q’s”. Lowercase b’s and d’s are another common typesetting pitfall.

Although they provided a standard amount of light for the time, candles were costly, and printers would have avoided any unnecessary business expenses. Tallow candles (made from rendered animal fat) were the most affordable option, but when supplies could be found, colonists made candles from beeswax and bayberry wax.[2] More costly but brighter burning were spermaceti candles, made from an oily substance gathered from the heads of hunted sperm whales.[3] Oil lamps were common and could be very basic in design: a lighted wick fueled by kitchen grease, fish oil, or whale oil.[4] Wicks in candles and lamps needed to be trimmed frequently, and besides the bayberry and beeswax, all of these fixtures smelled unpleasant.[5] Given these conditions, it is easy to see why sunlight dictated so much of people’s daily schedules. In 1784, for example, Benjamin Franklin (himself the son of a candle maker) wrote that daylight was much preferred to the “smoky, unwholesome, and enormously expensive light of candles.”[6] While this letter to the editor of a Paris newspaper was written as “mild satire”, it is the origin of the often-repeated idea that Benjamin Franklin invented daylight saving time.[7]

Oil lamps and candles were necessary for nighttime and for overcast or stormy days. Candles could have been set on a table in candlesticks, hung on the wall in scones, or hung from a ceiling in candle lamps. Candles could also be set inside lanterns, which protected the flames from drafts and wind.[8] Here in Philadelphia, the National Park Service runs a reproduction of a 18^th-century printing shop called the Franklin Court Printing Office. This shop receives sunlight from large windows, has two candle scones hung along a wall, and is also (anachronistically) illuminated by modern overhead lighting so the print demonstrations can be seen by visitors.

There is also evidence that suggests printing presses at this time might have had candle holders attached to the press frame, for a closer source of light while working or for finishing up late night copies. The Smithsonian Institution, for example, holds the Franklin Printing Press, so called because it was originally used in the London print shop where Benjamin Franklin apprenticed in the 1720s. This press, “now a battered and shaky old veteran” has a “small tin disk” nailed to one side of the frame, which may be the base of an old candle-holder. The press has a few burn marks that support the candle-holder theory.[9] In addition, another surviving press from this time period, held at the Science Museum in London has an intact candle holder on the frame. 

With advances in artificial lighting, the workday was lengthened. Because of gas light and electric light, labor became possible at all hours. Today it is rare for us to go without artificial lighting even for just a day and there are no true “off hours”. As Jonathan Crary writes in 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep: “There are now very few significant interludes of human existence (with the colossal exception of sleep) that have not been penetrated and taken over as work time, consumption time, or marketing time.”[10] Artificial lighting and expectations of productivity have become so commonplace and so deeply engrained in our modern lives as to be nearly unremarkable.

Wintertime, with its long hours of darkness, is an opportunity for us to reflect and rest. As Sarah Sunshine Manning has written, “In its period of darkness, the winter solstice is an opportunity to go inward with deep intention, to care for our spiritual selves, our bodies and minds, our loved ones and families, and to prepare for the longer days ahead.”[11] 

It is in this spirit that we decided to host our December Broadside printing event in candlelight (although, for the safety of visitors and all the books in Fisher Fine Arts Library, where Common Press resides, we will be using battery operated candles). This will be an interesting experiment to try to see what printing was like before modern illumination. Without strong lighting, it may take us a little while longer to print copies of the broadside, but slowing down and enjoying the process is not a bad thing at all.

Crary, Jonathan. 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep. Verso, 2013.

Manning, Sarah Sunshine. “Acknowledging the Winter Solstice is a Decolonial Act for Indigenous People.” NDN Collective, December 14, 2019. https://ndncollective.org/acknowledging-the-winter-solstice-is-a-decolonial-act-for-indigenous-people/.

Morse Earle, Alice. Home Life in Colonial Days. Macmillan Company, 1898. Google Books.

Tunis, Edwin. Colonial Living. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Wroth, Lawrence. The Colonial Printer. The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1938.

Harris, Elizabeth. The Common Press: Being a Record, Description & Delineation of the Early Eighteenth-Century Handpress in the Smithsonian Institution, With a History & Documentation of the Press. David R. Godine, 1978.

Smith, Elmer. Early Lighting: From Tallow to Oil in Early America. Applied Arts Publisher, 1975.