August 29 - Friday From The Collectors

WOMEN WEARING GLASSES

Eyeglasses have a strong claim to be the invention that has brought
the most aid and comfort to human beings. Yet it is curious
that the name of their inventor is not certainly known,
nor the exact date of the invention.
~ A Spectacle of Spectacles ~

LINDA PALMER

Collecting old photographs of women wearing glasses is my passion. I never met one I didn't want. Over the last twenty years I have accumulated a wide variety of these lovely photographs. Some are priceless, others called my name from the dusty confines of various antique shops. All of my treasures give me personal satisfaction. Now I'd like to share that passion with everyone. This will not be a discussion of eye ware or its history. It is a celebration of those brave women wearing glasses.

So why women wearing glasses you ask? I wear glasses now and always have. As a child my glasses were very "red," my favorite color at the time. As I got older I had a different color for each outfit and now I buy hand-painted frames from local artists. Glasses have always been my fashion accessory.

I own many books written about glasses and they have several things in common. There are photographs of glasses with no one wearing them and there are drawings of people wearing glasses. None of my many books contain photographs of people actually wearing glasses. I wanted to know what real people looked like wearing their glasses from the early 1800s to about 1930. So I started my quest.

Two Pince Nez
American Optical Company
c 1915
Eyeware

Unknown artist
Blindness
c. 1810
A Spectacle of Spectacles

The first thing I realized was that I had no problem finding photographs of men wearing glasses. They were everywhere. Wearing glasses for men was viewed similarly to that of a man being overweight, it was a sign of prosperity. Far too easy a hunt I reasoned. Where were the women?

Gentleman Wearing Glasses
Cabinet Card
Mayes
Unknown
Author's Collection
(spectacles)

Women wearing glasses are difficult, but not impossible to find. Although glasses have been around for quite some time, women wearing them have not. Glasses, you see, were for elderly women, a product of their age. Young women had one goal in life - to be beautiful so they would make an advantageous marriage and glasses did not enhance their beauty. Men felt there was no beauty in a young women wearing glasses, rather it was a sign that the woman felt herself equal to men. Women were discouraged from wearing glasses and sometimes even forbidden to wear glasses. God forbid a woman was able to see what she was doing.

Mature Woman Wearing Glasses
Cabinet Card
Dore
Unknown
Author's Collection
(spectacles)

The photographers themselves had a great deal to do with why there were so few photographs of women wearing glasses. Most photographers considered themselves artists in the same sense as old world painters and glasses played no part in their artistic vision. They often asked women to remove their glasses. They complained of the glare from the glasses when taking a photograph. I do find it strange that there was no glare from the glasses men were wearing.

I like a challenge, so I decided to collect women wearing glasses. Once the collection grew I knew I had to write a book to show those real women wearing glasses. The collection and the book became one, My Blind Passion.

My collection numbers several hundred examples of women wearing glasses. Below is probably the earliest photograph I own of a woman wearing glasses. It is a daguerreotype, of which I have three. The woman looks as if taking her portrait was very painful.

Photographer Unknown
Portrait of a seated woman. ca 1850
Sixth Plate Cased daguerreotype. Author's collection.
The case is covered with brown leather
and lined with red velvet.
(spectacles)

I also have one ambrotype and one tintype of a woman wearing glasses. As I only have one of each I'm sure you won't mind if I save them for the book. The bulk of my collection are Cartes de Visite, Cabinet Cards, and card mounted photographs. The following are examples of the different types of photographs I own.

Carte de Visite
Carte de Visite
O. E. Mitchell's
Lowell, Mass.
c. 1862
Author's Collection
(spectacles)

~::~

Cabinet Card

Cabinet Card
Allis
Unknown
Author's Collection
(spectacles)

~::~

Card Mounted Photograph

Card Mounted Photograph
Unknown
c. 1897
Author's Collection
(pince nez)

~::~

Mass Produced French Postcard

Postcard
Unknown
c. 1907
Author's Collection
(lorgnette)

~::~

Real Photo Postcard RPPC

RPPC
Unknown
1914
Author's Collection
(pince nez)

~::~

Photo Booth Card

Photo Booth Unknown c. 1915
Author's Collection
(pince nez)

Each of the different types of photographs in the collection are broken down into sub-categories. For example, infants, children, mothers and children, vignette, sitting, standing, communion, graduation, wedding, and occupation to name a few.

One of the categories I identify as glamour shots. Attractive women dressed elegantly and brave enough to wear those glasses.

Card Mounted Photograph
Erickson
Unknown
Author's Collection
(pince nez)

Another category is the weird strange and unusual. Below the young woman has tied herself to the fashion trends of her time even when they were not flattering and she wears those glasses.

Cabinet Card
Thayer
Unknown
Author's Collection
(pince nez)

One of the more exciting sub-categories of women wearing glasses, actually doesn't involve the wearing. Instead it is photographs of women who are holding their glasses, or who have pinned their glasses to their clothing. Below is a Carte de Visite of a Civil War era woman holding her glasses in her hand (see inset).

Directly below the inset is a photograph of a woman who has attached her glasses to her clothing. These are very difficult to find.

Carte de Visite
Hobson Brothers
Unknown
Author's Collection
(spectacles)

Next is one of my favorite sub-categories, an infant wearing glasses. Just as today we place a baby in a cooking pot, put a chef's hat on their head, hand them some spoons and take their picture, early parents played cute with their infants as well. Our little girl is wearing glasses and reading the newspaper. Infants wearing glasses either for fun or function are difficult to acquire.

Cabinet Card
Fellows
Unknown
Author's Collection
(spectacles)

Equally difficult to find are children wearing glasses. The little girl is wearing pince nez (pinch on the nose glasses) attached with a cord. She poses with an umbrella under her arm and an exceptionally short hairstyle which could indicate illness or hair that just wouldn't grow.

Carte de Visite
J. C. Steinman
Unknown
Author's Collection
(pince nez)

Below is a photograph of a nurse wearing glasses. It depicts her wearing the clothing suitable for her particular field. Photographs that reflect job affiliated costumes are called occupational photographs. Other occupations where photographs of women wearing glasses can be found are school teacher, nanny, librarian, and nun. I have the school teacher, nanny, and librarian, I'm still searching for the nun.

Card Mounted Photograph
Jarvis
Unknown
Author's Collection
(pince nez)

Another sub-category of collecting in women wearing glasses is women holding opera glasses or binoculars. I have very few photographs of this category. The women with opera glasses are usually elegantly dressed; the opera glasses a prop to indicate their level of culture.

Cabinet Card
Miller and Williams
Jackson, Ohio
Author's Collection
(opera glasses)

A bride must have really needed her glasses to have her wedding photograph taken wearing them.

Card Mounted Photograph
Steihaug
Unknown
Author's Collection
(spectacles)

I also collect ephemera to compliment my collection of women wearing glasses. Below are two small, illustrated cards we now call trade cards advertising two opticians. By the 1880s, trade cards had become a major way of advertising America's products and services. The popularity of trade cards peaked around 1890, and then almost completely faded by the early 1900s when other forms of advertising in color became more cost effective.

Trade Card
Unknown
Author's Collection

Trade Card
Unknown
Author's Collection

Along with advertising I collect photographs of businesses that sold eyeglasses such as the one below that advertises "Spectacles & Eyeglasses" and "Eyes Examined Free." Often the sales of eyeglasses were combined with jewelers, watchmakers and the sale of silver. Eyeglasses were one of the top items stolen, as they were originally constructed of silver and gold.

Postcard RPPC
Unknown
c. 1904
Author's Collection

And now I close with my favorite photograph of a woman wearing glasses.

Recognize Her?

Article
Copyright © 2008
Linda Palmer

Sources:

Books:

Ochiali, Gli. Eyeware. New York: Chronicle Books, 1987.
Winkler, Wolf. A Spectacle of Spectacles.Germany: Eurfurt, 1988.

Photographs:

Gentleman Wearing Spectacles. Mayes (Cabinet Card). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Mature Woman Wearing Spectacles. Dore (Cabinet Card). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Woman Seated. Unknown (Daguerreotype). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Woman. O.E. Mitchell (Carte de Visite). 1862. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Woman With Spectacles. Allis (Cabinet Card). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Woman Pince Nez. Unknown (Card Mounted). 1897. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Woman Lorgnette. Unknown (Postcard). 1904. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Woman & Mirror. Unknown (RPPC). 1914. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Woman Several Photos. Unknown (Photo Booth). 1915. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Elegant Woman. Unknown (Card Mounted). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Weird, Strange & Unusual. Thayer (Cabinet Card). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Woman Holding Glasses. Hobson Brothers (Caret de Visite). 1862. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Infant. Fellows (Cabinet Card). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Child Wearing Pince Nez. J. C. Steinman (Carte de Visite). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Nurse. Jarvis (Card Mounted). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Woman With Opera Glasses. Miller & Willias (Cabinet Card). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Wedding. Steihaug (Card Mounted). Unknown. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.

Business. Unknown(Postcard). 1904. Privately held by the footnoteMaven, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Preston, Washington. 2008.