Tag: eyeglasses
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The history of eyeglasses
Efforts to improve vision date back to the ancient civilizations of India and China. Greek scholars such as Ptolemy and Euclid endeavored to understand the physics of light refraction, the mechanisms of lenses, and how their properties can enhance vision and literacy. The Romans magnified the letters they were looking at by placing reading stones…
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Spectacle seller
In an often repeated theme, Adriaen van Ostade (1610–1685), painter of the Dutch Golden Age, presents a spectacle seller. He offers his wares to an older woman, watched by a child or perhaps an apprentice of the seller. As we can see in his hands, the spectacles are without temples to rest on the ear…
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Washington and his spectacles
Ronald FishmanChicago, Illinois, United States After accepting the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, Washington took most of the Continental Army back up to the Northeast to cover the main British army based around New York City. In the winter of 1782-1783, with the peace negotiations going on in Paris, the encampment was located…