Posts under ‘Specs in History’

Erudition At Spectacles Blog?! Surely Not
There’s an article that came to my attention (it had the word “spectacles” in it) in The Yale Alumni magazine on-line including such prose as follows…
“The eyeglasses, by the way, are real, but it doesn’t seem impossible for Whitman to have decided that Walt Whitman, capital W capital W, would [...]

Spectacles Blog Gets Pedantic… and Ponderous…
Why is it “Spectacles” (always plural) and then when you put them away, it’s in a spectacle case (singular)? I guess the first part is that there are two of them - the lenses - as scissors and trousers and thus the prefix “a pair” of which goes with all [...]

A Whole Site for Lorgnette Spectacles…
I don’t want to go on about old spectacles all the time as I’ve just done a post on different styles of old specs but in doing that I found a site for Lorgnettes.  Yes a wholesite just for these old style spectacles - though they do carry a fair amount of [...]

Spectacles History: Any More For Any More?
I’ve had a few more driplets of info from old reading around on the history of spectacles and sunglasses sitting here unpublished for absolutely age and todayI’m getting it out there.  For more info on where history and spectacles collide see Spectacles In History in our reference library. Meanwhile…
Sunglasses,
in [...]

And A Whole Website For These Nose Pinching Spectacles
Imagine, a whole website on the subject of Pince Nez spectacles… and why not.  And for those of you not familiar with the name, it translates (almost) literally as “pinch nose”.
If you want to visit the site (Pince Nez Renaissance) in all it’s sepia charm, you can [...]

And The The Spectacles Habit…
According to Wikipedia, Barry Goldwater, famous senator who ran for president in 1964, continued to wear his spectacles (his thick horn rimmed glasses) even after he had contact lenses because people didn’t recognise him and his persona was diluted without his spectacles.  So he reverted to wearing them.
When you see the picture [...]

Hyperocular Spectacles ~ Glasses Writ Large
There was a Spectacles Blog draft post that had been sitting there doing nothing and going no-where for months because it didn’t seem that interesting!  It was about ancient characters looking through globes of water to magnify (1st Century); Nero looking through an emerald; and 8th Century folk reading Egyptian [...]

And G15 Ray-Ban Sunglasses vs. Polarised Sunglasses Lens
My friend John has asked me to answer two queries:
[1] Should I have glass lenses or plastic/poly-whatisname?
[2] What is Ray-Ban G15 (as seen on the airport stand en route to recent skiing trip!) as against a Polarised lens?
I am on the case and will answer within 24 hours.  Meanwhile thank [...]

 More Antique Spectacles from Antique Spectacles*
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Abraham Lincoln (Honest Abe: 1861-1865) was the 16th President of the United States.  He is often rated as one of the greatest presidents because of his role in ending slavery and his helping the Union to victory in the civil war.  His assassination made him a martyr to millions.
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At the Library of [...]

King James II’s Spectacles - or Just The Case?
A piece on the Victoria & Albert museum (V&A) site begs a question about these antique spectacles.
Quoting their website “A fascinating late-18th-century letter accompanied these spectacles when they were acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, claiming the case had once belonged to James II (1633-1701). It tells us how the [...]