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Eyeglasses were probably invented about the year 1300, although Marco Polo may have brought the idea from China. In the 17th century the belief arose that green glass helped cure ailing eyes: Samuel Pepys, the English diarist of this period, feared he might be going blind and wrote more than once that he should buy a pair of green glasses.
Although the late 18th century and early 19th century glasses displayed here are small by current standards, their pupil-to-pupil separation is the same as that of modern eyeglasses. Some have folding, sliding or pivoting bows; laces tied through loops at the ends of the bows ensured a comfortable fit on any size head. Some have clear glass and some have tinted; one pair has both. The practical homemade green goggles were used about 1840 by Eber Hubbard of North Guilford.
Other things you will find in this display case are: corset boards, a curling or crimping iron, horn combs, a lock of Alice Apsley's hair (wife of George Fenwick, founder of Old Saybrook, CT), a slipper heel, a clothes or blanket pin, a teaspoon, a wooden spoon and skimmer, a gingerbread stamp, a medicine or "pap" spoon, lacemaking bobbins, fluting tongs, a knitting needle sheath, a skimmer or strainer, scissors, a pincussion, and a glazier's diamond.
Click here to return to the attic showcase.
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