Bio: Archambo, Helen – Collection of Kerosene Lamps (1973)

Transcriber: Stan

Surnames: Archambo, Papenfuss, Bates

----Source: Tribune/Phonograph (Abbotsford, Clark Co., Wis.) 22 Mar 1973

From the outside, the house at 404 Spruce Street, Abbotsford, looks like an ordinary home, white with green shingles, porch with thin simple pillars.

But inside, it is far from ordinary. At one of the room stand the “Queen Ann,” while on another table is located “Gone With the Wind.”

Books? Not at all. These are just two of the more than 200 antique kerosene lamps which have brought Mrs. Royal (Helen) Archambo, the proprietor, statewide recognition as the “Lamp Lady.”

Her unusual 38-year-old hobby began back in 1935 when Max Papenfuss, a bachelor, gave Mr. and Mrs. Archambo a lamp, which was their only source of light for six months. She then was given the “Gone With the Wind” lamp from her husband, who got it from his parents. These two lamps sparked her interest, and since then she has been steadily collecting these antiques.

Her oldest lamp a “night light” was manufactured in 1873. She also has a cobalt blue lamp, which she considers rare, and is most found of a small lamp with an amethyst glass base, for which she traded a china closet valued at $100, although the lamp is worth much less.

Some of her other treasure include a “Nutmeg” .amp, “Ed of the Day Glass” lamp, “Goofus Glass” lamp and “Aladdin” lamp.

Mrs. Archambo has accumulated most of her lamps from local sources, with the exception of a few lamps from Marshfield and Stratford. She learns about lamps “by word of mouth.” The “Queen Ann” lamp she purchased last week from Clint Bates, Abbotsford, for $5.

In her home, lamps are stored in every room. She said none has ber been broken, although one of her 11 grandchildren broke a shade many years ago.

Mrs. Archambo, at age 58, said she will continue to collect these lamps, although stated that now she only finds about five per years. Due to the personal value, the total value of her antiques cannot be measured. She plans someday to divide the lamps between her grandchildren.