50 A.D.: Way Back When…

From precious stone and round rocks to walrus ivory and Ben’s bifocals, the world pre-1800 shows how resourceful Homo sapiens really are.

50 A.D.: CRUEL JEWEL

Roman emperor Nero’s mother kills her husband and his uncle to get her 16-year-old onto the throne. Later Nero kills her. As ruler, he uses emeralds to shield his eyes from the sun at gladiator games.

Nero uses emeralds as sun lenses

800: ROCK ON

Shaped from crystal, the first “lenses” were placed on the page to magnify the words.

1200: WHERE’S WALRUS?

Early Inuits carve the first sunglasses—mostly from walrus ivory—with slits to see through.

An Inuit man in the first known sunglass style

1400: FREQUENT REPLACEMENT

Florence, Italy, the center of eyewear, tells seniors (over 30!) to replace their glasses every five years.

1784: BIG BEN

Sick of switching glasses, Ben Franklin develops the bifocal...soon to be part of his “signature” look.

Ben Franklin painting: 1789 oil on canvas by Charles Wilson Peale. (courtesy Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

1800s: E is for Electricity

From the telegraph to the first phone call and functional lightbulb, electricity—and the Industrial Revolution—changes the world.

1833: BORN IN THE USA

William Beecher starts selling spectacles in his Southbridge, MA, jewelry shop. 60 years and many mergers later, it incorporates as American Optical.

Workers in the AO factory

1850: EYE HEAR YOU

Lorgnettes and monocles become widely available. Lorgnettes are so popular they’re added to everything from mechanical pencils to ear trumpets.

Sterling silver lorgnette (courtesy The AOA Foundation)

1860: BOIL AND BUBBLE

Optician John Bausch picks up a piece of hard rubber from the road and experiments with heating it on his stove. Soon, he is producing rubber frames—and 29 years later, optical glass. His partner? Harry Lomb.

Bausch and Lomb as young men
B&L, AO factory, and Inuit photos courtesy of Optical Heritage Museum

1900s: Wars and Revolution

So many wars. WWI and II, the Cold War, and finally a revolution…a digital one, that is.

1929: BEACHED!

Sam Foster sells sunglasses on the Atlantic City Boardwalk—and founds Foster Grant.

1936: PICTURE THIS

Edwin Land adapts his Polaroid filter to sunglasses and commercializes the sale of sunnies. Next? Instant cameras.

1937: FLYING HIGH

Soon to be worn in flight during WWII, Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses hit the pavement, making a big impact.

1980: SUPERSIZED

Bob Hillman opens Eyelab, the first optical superstore. Customers literally take tickets to get inside.

1996: PAC-MAN

Consolidation takes a new turn as lens manufacturers begin gobbling up Rx labs in the U.S.

2000 and Counting

As boomers fall out of favor, millennials move in and social media takes center stage.

2001: WAVES AND WIZARDS

Harry Potter hits the big screen and wavefront technology casts its spell on optical.

Daniel Radcliffe can’t quiet the 2001 Sorcerer’s Stone craze

2009: GET AND GIVE

Optical shakes in its bricks as Warby Parker launches and soon gets in step with TOM’s buy-one, give-one strategy.

2012: GLASS ACT

Google announces Project Glass and quickly adds plans for a prescription-friendly version.

Ted shows he’s a real man in Google Glass

2015: BALANCING ACT

E-tailers increase sales by 18%, and traditional retailers grow online by 11%. All eyes are on millennials, who love both.

2016: WINNING BIG

Sun and sports eyewear are center stage, court, and field as the U.S. brings home a record 121 Olympic medals.

Kerri Walsh Jennings brings home the bronze (courtesy Oakley)