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Welcome to APERTURE the web gateway for optical history sites. This page provides an opening onto the rest of the web for sites with content relating to the science and history of optics or ophthalmic antiques. The College of Optometrists accepts no responsibility for the content or accessibility of these sites. Commercial sites are not included.
If you detect a broken link, please inform the Curator.
Museums You Can Visit
United Kingdom
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The Science Museum (entry updated June 2007)
The only other truly significant collection in Great Britain relating to ophthalmic optics which is open to the public. Unfortunately the much-loved Optics Gallery on the 3rd floor closed in 2006 to make way for the relocation of the Launch Pad Kids activity area. A small number of optical items (mainly microscopes and telescopes) are on view in the Science in the 18th Century Gallery whilst there are a few ophthalmic exhibits to be found in the Wellcome Galleries for the History of Medicine. Further items, including the Dunscombe Collection, are held in the reserve store at Blythe House, Olympia, to which researchers can sometimes gain access but to which public group visits have been suspended.
The Human Biology Gallery includes displays about the visual cortex and in Section J a somewhat aged but fun display on visual perception and optical illusions. The exhibit consists of interactives but no original objects.
A significant collection of scientific instruments amongst which you can find hand magnifiers, spectacles, optometric equipment, microscopes, telescopes, astronomic and chemical apparatus. This website also provides access to the rete e-mail list for those with a special interest in the subject of historic instrumentation.
A collection of scientific instruments dating from earliest times to the present with optical reference collections available to visitors in 'open-storage' drawer system. The collection includes Gregorian reflecting telescopes, mineral viewers, binoculars, spyglasses and prints. Also the Heywood Collection of microscopes and two replicas of Newton's telescope. The website was updated in July 2006: As well as receiving an overall new look, the site now contains a brand new section, named 'Explore', giving in-depth information on over 60 objects from three key areas of the Museum’s collection: astronomical instruments, microscopes and teaching models.
Leeds museum with reserve collections relating to spectacles, optometry and ophthalmic surgery. Their hearing aid display may also be of interest to historians of sensory impairment.
The NMS (incorporating the Royal Museum) in Edinburgh displays various scientific instruments and the Frank Collection of microscopes. The reserve collections include spectacles and other optical equipment.
This small local history museum in East Yorkshire features a reconstruction of an optometrist's practice, for which much of the equipment was donated by our College member, John Keay. Items include a perimeter, near point rule, illuminated test chart and domiciliary bag.
We have been informed that this small local history museum includes a display case relating to a local optician, but note that the 'displays are continually changing'. Look out for cameras and other medical items.
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Visit the only surviving home of the great scientist and optician, just yards away from the BOA Museum! Tours are led by a costumed interpreter and his life story is told through multi-media projections onto the bare panelled walls. Certainly different.
The Americas
A small museum in San Francisco, run by the American Academy of Ophthalmology Foundation (now known as Eye Care America), which has sponsored a particularly innovative travelling exhibition programme, most notably on animal eyes. The permanent museum display reopened in May 2003.
The main optical collection in Canada, formerly known as the Museum of Visual Science and Optometry. The website was redesigned during the Winter Term of 2002 and now includes images of the exhibition, items from the collection, some well known optical illusions, a database and 'Hall of Fame'.
Founded in 1990 as part of the library service of the Escuela de Optometría, including antique eyeglasses, contact lenses, ophthalmic equipment, books and photographs. Open to the general public.
Opened in America 12 October 2002, the Johnson-Shaw Stereoscopic Museum is home to a collection of stereoviews, lantern slides, historic documents, books and equipment manufactured by the Keystone View Company, the largest manufacturer of stereoscopic views in the United States, and formerly located in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
Europe
Italian public museum high up in the Dolomite mountains, where a spectacle-making industry has existed since 1878. The Museum of Spectacles was established in 1986 at the instigation of Signor Vittorio Tabacchi, the president of Safilo Group. Located in a remote but beautiful village, but worth seeking out as one of the most extensive displays of its type in the world with over a thousand items to view. (Website in Italian).
Stylish, if hard to navigate website, of the private Safilo company museum in Padua's Industrial Zone. The museum boasts a number of early items as well as material with celebrity associations and may be visited by those with a genuine interest, subject to arrangement. To find the museum pages click on 'Galleria'. (Website in Italian).
Perhaps the foremost optical museum in terms of the quality of its displays. Managed by the Ernst Abbe Foundation, the museum features a good range of ophthalmic instruments as well as visual aids.
French museum in the Jura mountains relocated to the town hall square in 2003. The collections feature some (but not all) of the famous Pierre Marly collection whilst the exhibition programme has a strong emphasis on current frame design.Germany's premier science museum includes an extensive optics gallery featuring spectacles and early contact lenses as well as ophthalmic instruments. Elsewhere in the museum is an interesting display on optical glass.
A superb exploration of the world of the magic lantern and other optical entertainments such as stereoscopes, the camera obscura and visual illusions. Housed on the top floor of an Italian palazzo in Padua but well worth the walk up the stairs. The website is bilingual.
Taking communication in its widest sense this museum, based on the private collection of Signor Fausto Casi, features material relating to the transmission of visual information including spectacles, vision aids, televisions, cameras, optical illusions and cinematic heritage. (The link is to a copy of the museum's bilingual publicity leaflet).
Asia
Newly opened on 6 June 2006 (China's National Day for Eyecare), this museum in the Zhabei district, the Chinese capital of spectacles, uses interactive games, short videos and cartoon characters to guide visitors around. The displays concentrate on the health of one’s eyes, the technology required to make spectacles and what is to be found in a typical optician's premises. There is an interactive virtual laboratory and games allowing visitors to test various aspects of their eyesight. There is a display of spectacles from the 19th century onwards as well as many modern examples with information about the local manufacturing industry. There is also a reconstruction of an opticians from the 1920s, some of the tools of which are apparently still used by Chinese today. The website is all in Chinese but an English-language version is in preparation.
Our own museum's virtual guides and exhibitions. Based on six years' of research the MusEYEum was relaunched in 2004 and again, with a new format, in Autumn 2005. Our aim is to become THE authoritative source of ophthalmic historical information on the web.
Superb Russian site providing chronological account of spectacles, pince-nez and oriental spectacles, copiously illustrated with examples from the optical museum (Il Museo Dell’ Occhiale) at Pieve di Cadore in Italy. Note, however, that the monocular devices featured in the section called 'monocles' would more normally be described by English-speaking historians as 'quizzing glasses'. (Note: June 2007 - the English version of this site had moved. Let us know if you find it!)
Site of a British private individual, Mr Chris Ridings, detailing his collection of antique spectacles 'and other related items'. Prominence is given to two Eye of Horus amulets. Unfortunately this site has not been updated for some time.
Ever-expanding content-rich site of an American retired ophthalmologist, Dr David Fleishman, promoting the 'hobby' of antique spectacle collecting. The site features many images drawn from international public and private collections and includes some interactive games and a fun feature by Michael Lebby on Wearing Antique Spectacles. Amongst many more things we could mention it also provides translations of historic documents and images of spectacle-themed coins and medals drawn from various private collections.
General history of spectacles and lenses, including their manufacture. Includes a small gallery of 'Spectacles in Art'. (Austrian-based website in German).
Profusely illustrated site managed by a private collector, including telescopes, microscopes, spectroscopes, focimeters, colorimeters etc...even a bottle of 1920s Canada balsam! (Website in German).
Instruments from the collections of the University of Nebraska, Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Search under the 'optics' category to discover nearly sixty instruments used in teaching at this Japanese school from approximately 1923-1950, including optical benches, stereoscopes, spectroscopes, spectacles for X-ray use and prismatic devices. After abolition this school was incorporated as part of Kobe University. (Flash-based Japanese website in English version).
Our sister College has an 'Ophthalmology Tour' illustrating ophthalmoscopes, loupes, ophthalmic dressings and drugs used in the treatment of animals. It also highlights the work of Professor Clifford Formston, author of a classic 1940s treatise on the crystalline lens of the dog.
An ever-expanding site containing details of scientific exhibits, including optical instruments, to be found in museums across the world.
Web articles on the history of Ophthalmic Optics
An alternative account of the development of spectacles from the point of view of Mr C.N. Chua, Specialist Registrar and a practising ophthalmologist from Oxford. See also his account of The Ophthalmoscope
A useful technical chronology of the wider science.
Summary of Contact Lens developments and the people involved by contact lens optician Tim Bowden.
Illustrated summary of contact lens developments based on the BCLA's Pioneers Project, presented by optometrist Andrew Gasson FCOptom
An account of the famous German optical firm.
Brief account of the spectacle-making industry in the Jura mountains close to the Swiss border and the Lycée Victor Bérard, the French National School of Optics in Morez which began as a watch-making college in 1854 but has been teaching spectacle-making since 1900 (French site in English).
Specialist Societies
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Flourishing society, founded in 1982, for enthusiasts of spectacles, opera glasses, eyebaths and many other forms of optical heritage. You don't have to be a collector yourself to enjoy the club's informative newsletter and varied programme of visits.
US counterpart to the OAICC but many Americans enjoy belonging to both organisations. Comprises members 'who appreciate, conserve and collect items relating to the ophthalmic sciences'.
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City of London Livery Company granted its charter by King Charles I in 1629 and one of the founding bodies of the College of Optometrists in 1980. The Company's distinguished membership reflects the full extent of the optical and ophthalmic worlds as well as many unrelated professions and has met at Apothecaries Hall since 1946. It is still active in the direct training of optical technicians and receptionists and conducts extensive charitable work in the field of vision care. The Company kindly hosts a museum page devoted to its historic and subject links with the BOA collections.
The Scientific Instrument Society (SIS) was formed in April 1983 to bring together people with a specialist interest in scientific instruments, ranging from precious antiques to electronic devices only recently out of production.
The senior international microscopical society, counting in its distinguished membership microscopists from all over the world.
Founded in 1865 in memory of the surgeon and microscopist John Thomas Quekett (1815-61), the Club is second only in seniority to the Royal Microscopical Society, but the first members deliberately chose to call themselves a 'Club' rather than a 'Society' to emphasize the 'amateur' nature of the membership - which is particularly open to beginners. The Quekett Journal of Microscopy has continued an unbroken tradition since 1868.
American-based society for telescope enthusiasts with an emphasis on astronomy. Includes a 'Virtual Museum' tour.