Last Word
The Optician turns 50
by Karlen McLean, ABOC, NCLC

The Saturday Evening Post cover depicting a grumpy boy getting new glasses fit by a helpful optician is celebrating 50 years in print this month.

In 1956, Norman Rockwell visited Harvey & Lewis Opticians in Hartford, Conn. The fourth-generation optical business opened in 1890 and was the biggest optical establishment in the area, as well as close to Rockwell's home and studio in Stockbridge, Mass.

Recreating a classic American Saturday Evening Post cover popularly known as "The Optician," are the original child model Steve Nesko (l) with 1959-apprentice optician Joe DeSanzo at Harvey & Lewis Opticians

Rockwell and a photographer were at the shop for two Sundays to sketch and take photos. His subjects were optician Clarence Berger, whose wife was a cousin of Rockwell's wife, and 13-year-old Steve Nesko, who had come in to pick up his glasses. The boy was paid $10 and allowed to keep the baseball cap.

"Many people think it's a Boston Red Socks cap, but it's really a Brooklyn Dodgers cap," says Jim Lewis, president of Harvey & Lewis. "The baseball mitt and cap were Rockwell's."

The painting graced the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in May 1956. Today, Harvey & Lewis displays copies of the painting and a thank you letter written by Rockwell
at their locations.

In October 2002, Patrick Raycraft took a reenactment photo for the Hartford Courant to help launch the Norman Rockwell Eyewear Collection by Lawrence Eyewear. It features a 59-year-old Steve Nesko frowning at Joe DeSanzo, 82, who was an apprentice optician at the store when Rockwell created the cover.