The Gradual Discovery of Glasses | Lapham’s Quarterly

Considering the prehistory of spectacles.

Nathaniel Olds , by Jeptha Homer Wade, 1837. The Cleveland Museum of Art , seventy-fifth anniversary gift of Jeptha H. Wade III, 1991. As with many everyday objects, it is difficult to determine who invented glasses, or where and when they were first used. In fact, they were not really “invented” in the sense of being a great discovery, a unique inspiration that provided a solution to a hitherto unanswered problem. It was more of a gradual process that went hand in hand with other scientific and technical discoveries—accompanied by persistent speculation and questions. In prehistoric times the

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