Blog Post 10 - Revolutionary Vision (Eyeglasses)

Though origins of the eyeglasses are unknown what is known is that in the early Middle Ages glasses were made and used for scholars in Italy and Germany. Eyeglasses are revolutionary because there is no way to know how many great scholars through time have been stifled in making new discoveries or how many artists we have missed out on knowing because they couldn't see!


Fragment from the alterpiece painted by Conrad von Soest at the Protestant Church for the City of Bad Wildungen demonstrates the use and design of eyeglasses of the 14th century (retrieved from: http://kirche.wildungen.info/287.html )

 The revolutionary design of putting magnifying glasses into frames that fit on the face instead of being held in the hand over the page made it possible for Benjamin Franklin to invent bifocals. In a equally revolutionary time period a much aged Franklin found it tedious to change quickly from reading glasses to glasses for viewing at a distance and so, created glasses that included both forms of magnification in one lens.

The embodiment of the value that glasses can bring to society Benjamin Franklin needed glasses and even improved on their design in 18th century America (retrieved from: http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/PictDisplay/Franklin_Benjamin.html)

 From a tool to create and learn glasses in more modern time have become artistic expressions for their creators and wearers. Eyeglasses as everyday objects are revolutionary and continue to be to this day in the form of sunglasses. Now glasses can be and are worn by everyone even those who don't have visual empairments. With everyone as a potential customer more and more designers are creating their own unique styles. From the everyday to haute couture the eyeglasses and sunglasses adorning faces are also turning heads.

A modern iteration of eyeglasses in the form of high fashion accessory exemplified by Valentino (retrieved from: http://www.specsuperstore.com/pictures/valentino_sun.jpg)