C~/ OllTOitiiV liiARY )lEWSLETTER MAR 201987 Volume 18 r OF THE ~TOMETRIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY ~243 North Lindbergh Boulevard St. Louis, Missouri, 63141, USA) January 1987 Chaired by President J. J. Abrams, twenty some members of the Optometric Historical Society and guests gathered on Saturday, December 13, during a brief lull of the multi-faceted program of the American Academy of Optometry to hear OHS member E. J. Fisher give a well­ researched account of the history of Canadian optometry. Unfortunately the "lull" was really nonexistent for many who faced other conflicting academy events, but those who were present gave enthusiastic reviews of the paper. Fortunately, Dr. Fisher had his comments in manuscript form which Secretary Dablemont quickly snatched from him for the Archives, and a copy of which we hope to review in a future issue. Further, others of us have urged Dr. Fisher to publish the paper in the Qan~gi~~-~Q~rn~l of QE~Qmetry or elsewhere. Additional promotion of our efforts included supplies of three colorful sheets, a brief statement of the role of the Society, a membership application form, and a gift membership form, displayed at the Academy registration desk. Many were picked up by the Academy registrants, and we hope they will be used. Election results After a week of no receipt of additional ballots I tabulated the 37 responses received during the preceding month with the following results. Of the nine nominees, the three elected to the Executive Board are: Meredith Morgan, Jerome Abrams, and Douglas Penisten, in order of frequency of vote preferences. The same three were winners by the Hare system and by the rank score total system of evaluating the ballots. The present Board, therefore, consists of the following seven persons with their years of term expiration shown in parentheses: James P. Leeds (1987) Patrica Carlson (1988) Douglas Penisten (1988) Andrew E Fischer (1989) Jerome J Abrams (1989) Maria Dablemont (1990) Meredith Morgan (1990) ~/ i -:·- "' . .) ' ··~ -2- ·:'t. i . '· •. In ~d~ition, these Board members have elected the 1987 OHS officers from among themselves. They are as follows: President: Vice-Pres: Secretary: Treasurer: J.J. Abrams Patricia Carlson Maria Dablemont Douglas Penisten H.W H. OHS Executive Board member, Andrew Fischer, made every effort to attend the REMINISCE-IN in Toronto, but because we were so delayed in getting out the October issue of the newsletter he did not learn the date until too late. In brief, we can explain the delay in terms of a whole series of sequential difficulties. A detailed account would be boring, indeed. Nor was there a simple solution, for we rely so much on volunteer services. Dr. Fischer should have been angry. But no, instead, he sent our Secretary-Treasurer a $100.00 check to provide membership gifts to eight optometrists and two years' renewal of his own membership. We editors are especially grateful for such charitableness. A suggestion to the Board: As the recipient for the ballots cast by OSH members for the 1987 Executive Board I became well aware of inadequacies in our procedure. These were made particularly apparent by the need to select and rank nine nominees for three slots. Although the names of all nine have appeared from time to time in the Newsletter, it was virtually impossible for most of us to make fair judgements of their respective talents and dedication to OHS objectives. I personally know and felt all nine to be very well qualified, but even I wondered briefly if my ninth-ranked choice should not have been ranked first! In other words, there are important factors in addition to talent and dedication that should be weighed in the choice, and these may be ascertained only by direct inquiry and interview. Is the nominee willing to work, enthusiastic, effective, available for meetings, accessible to office facilities, readily available by telephone, administratively experienced, etc.? Our by-laws provide merely that a nomination be supported by three members. In no way has this provision been abused in our 17 years. However, what might well be added is a provision for the appointment of a nominating committee of three members whose assignment would be to search and screen the membership for one or more nominees for each opening and to make specific recommendations -3- of choice. Such a committee should be appointed early in the year so that its members can do the appropriate interviewing and inquiring well in advance. The ballots would then include the committee's recommended candidates plus whatever additional candidates' names might be nominated by other groups of three or more wishing to sponsor their own favored candidates. A legitimate objection might well be raised that this gives the nominating committee considerable power. True. The safety factors would then be the appointment of committee members of highest integrity and the continued provision that any other three members can sponsor and campaign for competing candidates. H.W H. Th~MQrton ~-2arv~~-Q~nter_fQK_Qorn~~-~nQ_Contact_~~ll§ R~~~h has been established by the University of California School of Optometry. Funds for the center are being derived from donations and from proceeds of a lecture series in the late Dr. Sarver's name. Frank Dickinson, 1906-1978: A 28 page 15 x 21 em booklet entitled "Frank Dickinson: Contact Lens Pioneer" was published by the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians in 1981 to honor a member who contributed extensively to optometry for more than a half centruy. Prepared by his son Peter Dickinson, it includes Frank's portrait, a list of eighteen honors, a biographical summary, and a chronological bibliography of about· 300 published writings. His unusual collection of contact lenses, lens cases, books, typescripts of lectures, papers, and other historical materials were donated to the Library of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians in London. In 1980 the Dolland and Aitchison firm donated the Frank Dig~insQn_Iutori~l_Qlini£ to the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology for use by the Department of Ophthalmic Optics. Collectors comE~~in~ OHS member Charles Letocha writes that it is getting more difficult each year to find old spectacles that he does not have already. He adds that "the prices have gone out of sight." OHS member J. D. Teunissen writes: I read your article in NOHS vol. 17, no. 4, with much interest. I collect all kinds of spectacles, books, articles, catalogs, prints, caricatures, and displays, and I write articles about them. I made about 10 copies of a 1901 S.L. catalog and a few of the NICURA bible, circa 1900, 960 pages. I collect newspaper advertisements, the earliest 1753! -4- Are there already reprints of books or catalogs in the U.S.A.? If I can borrow an original, I can make copies. Are there people interested? Let me know. Having sold my practice, I now work as an orator, stylist, and consultant in optics. Presently, I am advising a group of 160 top opticians in Holland. I made a traveling exposition of 200 years of spectacles. I am a free-lance worker and use my collection and knowledge as a source of ideas. Mr. Teunissen's address is Staringstraat 20, 5615 HD Eindhoven, The Netherlands. (Telephone 040-447581). Two OHS members mailed in almost identical clippings from newspapers of October 27 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky, describing OHS member Arol Augsburger's museum display of the spectacles of presently living celebrities. As mentioned on page 68 of the July 1984 issue of this newsletter, Dr. Augsburger already has well over 50 pair of spectacles in his collection, which frequently includes respondent's comments and photographs. Solicited celebrities include, for example, Sophia Loren, Dean Martin, George Bush, Gerald Ford, Phil Donahue, George F. Will, Charles Schulz, and Billy Graham. How YisiQn_Beseargh, an international journal of visual science, got started with the first edition in June 1961, and how it has contributed to the field of visual sceince in the quarter century since, are the topics for the Number 9, 1986, issue of volume 26. Represented are approximately 400 pages for 19 articles by authors selected by editor Robert Boynton and who publish in this journal. Each was asked to provide ;, a retrospective and personal review of an assigned area" of visual science. The result, to a large degree, is a panoramic view of the field of visual science as viewed from the pages of the Journal itself. The invitations obviously prompted a wealth of personal comments about individual researchers, and these were supplemented by hundreds of candid camera spots of the scientists in a variety of settings. Reference lists are huge. For those of us old enough to remember the modest status of visual science 50 years ago, this document is overwhelming. H. W H. -5- The alignment of two lenses one behind the other to give greater magnification is believed to have been a fortuitous discovery which seems not to have been made until three hundred years after the use of lenses for eyeglasses. The earliest records of microscopic observations date from 1625 and 1630. These are records of investigations on the bee and the weevil by Federico Cesi (1585-1630) and Francesco Stelluti (1577-1652), founder members of the Academy of the Lynx in Italy. The remarkably detailed sketches of the microscopic images of both insects were included in a 1630 book of Stelluti's Italian translations of the six Latin satires of Persius (34-62 A.D.). The story behind all this is delightfully told in an article entitled "The First Record of Microscopic Observations" by biologist David Bardell in the January 1983 issue of ~ioSci~nc~, Vol. 33, No. 1, pages 36-38, kindly called to our attention by OHS member Duane E. Polzien, O.D., of Lincoln, Nebraska. My co-editor Douglas Penisten, a real science history buff, puchased a 1986 book which in a sense is almost an instant rarity. It is a xerographically reduced print of a typewritten dissertation bound in heavy paper cover, as is common practice in some European universities, especially to meet the reques-ts of the typically few who want copies of dissertaitons in their original forms. The title is "Die ~unchener Optik in der Geschichte: Entstehung, Unternehmungen, Sternwarten, Lokalitaten, Ausbreitung" (The optics of Munich in history: Beginnings, enterprises, observations, involvements, and ramifications). The doctoral recipient and author, Alto Bracher, submitted it to the Faculty for Chemistry, Biology, and Geoscience at the Munich Technical University in partial fulfillment of his degree requirements. The book has 440 pages, 279 illustrations of maps, charts, portraits, diagrams, photographs, and paintings, and 223 references, in German of course. The history begins with an account of the eclipse of the sun by the planet Venus on July 6, 1761, as observed at the Rocker! observatory in Munich. The phenomenon of course was seen as a black spot in the sun's disk, if one dared foolishly to look directly at it. The book deals with all aspects of optics, the technological, professional, scientific, industrial, commercial, institutional, and entrepreneurial, which were so effectively nurtured in the Munich area from the 18th century on. -6- As many of our readers well know, ophthalmic optics p.layed an alpha and omega role in the represented era. The. open,ing sentence of the foreword, for example, states that ev~~~one who at any time has been even remotely involved with optics is acquainted with the name of Joseph Fraunhofer (1767-1826). Young Fraunhofer was apprenticing in spectaclemaking in 1801 at the age of 14. In the closing paragraphs of the book, the role of the Rodenstock firm is featured especially in terms of the optical involvement of three generations of the Rodenstock family. It follows that even though the b,ook qeals with tpe m~ltiple aspects of general optics, today a field broadly extended outsiqe of ophthalmic optics or optometry, the thread of its historical existence seems virtually tied in with spectacles. It therefore can be a valuable source book for the optometric history scholar, providing, of course, that he or she can read Qerman. In a 1986 publication of the Iqdiana Historical Society entitled "The Early Architecture of Madison, Indiana," by John T. Windle and Robert M. Taylor, Jr., the name? of two optometrists appear as owners of historically identified buildings. Anqe Wilberding, the widow of Herbert Wilberqing, O.D., is the present owner of a middle 19th century cottage of Federal style at 424 West Street, illustrated on page 65. Oscar Bear, O.D., and his wife Norma, are the owners of the Bear Building at 206 East Main Street, a three-story French Empire style 1870s building. Illustrated on page 172, its two first-floor store fronts bore the respective signs "Oscar C. Bear and Son Jeweler and Optometrist" and "Gifts . Silver . China . Crystal. " Situated on the north bank of the Ohio River, Madisop began its existence in the early years of the 19th century as a pOJ:"t .of entry for interior Indiana settlers and for some time prospered as Indiana's leading metropolis. Duripg its past century of little or no growth, however, the impressive remnant of buildings erected during Madison's palmy days stood fast. The ~ecember 1986 issue of QE~ic§_News, Vol. 12, No. 12, includes two brief historical items that give some insight into the personalities of Benjamin Franklin and Sir David Brewster. The one on Franklin is by Leo M. Hurvich on page 4 entitled "The Story Goes That. In 1761, Franklin e~plained to Miss Mary Stevenson that a black dress would be much warmer in the sun than a white one, that similarly a wet black cloth would dry faster than a wet white cloth, and that a beer in a black mug before the fire would warm sooner than beer in a white one. He also described an experiment of placing little squares of variously colored broadcloth on the snow in the bright sunshine and observing later the different depths of melting underneath. .. 7- On page 63, under identical title, W. L. Hyde quotes from a letter written in 1818 by Sir David Brewster to his wife about his famous invention, the kaleidoscope, as follows, .(I am told) that had I managed my patent rightly, I would have made one hundred thousand pounds by it! This is the universal opinion, and therefore the mortification is very great. You can form no conception of the effect which the instrument excited in London; all that you have heard falls infinitely short of the reality. No book and no instrument in the memory of man ever produced such a singular effect. They are exhibited publicly on the streets for a penny, and I had the pleasure of paying this sum yesterday; these are about two feet long and a foot wide. Infants are seen carrying them in their hands, the coachmen on their boxes are busy using them, and thousands of poor people make their bread by making and selling them." According to his daughter, he "never realized a farthing by it." It was not until twenty years later, when he was 57 that he finally received an appointment that gave him a decent income. The· spectacle stamp collection of Mrs. Richard Hall mentioned in the January and July issues of M~Q~Q~, pages 12 and 44, has been acquired by OHS member William Baldwin for the museum of the University of Houston College of Optometry. It is gratifying to realize that the placement of valuable historical items like this can be facilitated by this newsletter. Linda Draper, editor of Yisionlin~, the ILAMO newsletter, calls our attention to an excellent article by Walter Gasson entitled "Roman Ophthalmic Science (743 B.C.-A.D. 476) in the third 1986 issue of Qphtb~lm1£_~ng_fb~B1212Bigal Qptics, Vol. 6 No. 3 pp. 255-267. Reviewing in detail the medical and optical writings of Celsus, Seneca, Pliny, Rufus, Galen, and others Gasson concludes that in the more than 12 centuries of the Roman state significant advances had been made in the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of ocular disorders and in knowledge of ocular anatomy. However, in spite of their possession of skills of a high order in some aspects of glass technology and their familiarity with various aspects of geometric optics, the Romans never developed optical aids to overcome refractive defects. -8- Oculists (oculari) evolved as a branch of medicine but their courses of study and modes of practice are quite unknown. The magnifying effect of glass globe water lenses is mentioned more than once. It was common practice for a middle-aged presbyope to employ an educated slave to read for him. Slaves of high refractive error were of less value. Contemporary Greek physicians were favorite targets for ridicule by Latin poets. For example, one epigram relating to a Greek oculist translates, "you are now a gladiator, formerly you were an oculist. As a medical man you did what you do now as a.gladiator." Included are 10 illustrations and 30 references. Recruiting history buffs: OHS member Elias Shaneson O.D., who contributed his collection of journals and other optometric memorabilia to ILAMO before retirement, recently made a gift OHS membership to Russell J. Raye, O.D., of Palm Springs, Florida. This is a gentle, thoughtful, and generous way to bring into membership persons who otherwise overlook the opportunity to participate in and enjoy the rounding up and recording of the facts and lore of optometric history. Keep in mind that whenever any optometrically involved person interrupts his or her conversation with "Remember whe~ .. ?" take it as a cue to suggest membership in OHS. Recorded history takes various forms. One extreme is the factual chronological listing of persons, places, and things as components of events with each detail properly documented or referenced for authenticity, reliability, and validity. Another extreme is the informal descriptive discourse by one who personally experienced or witnessed the occurrences and whose authenticity, integrity, and competence are taken for granted. Each form is a contribution. An example of the latter is an article entitled "The 'Service Contract' Debate" by Neal J. Bailey in the October 1986 issue of Contact Lens Spectrum, Vol. 1, no. 10, pp. 17-18 and 20- 21. From his own career-long professional involvement in the clinical contact lens milieu he recites easily the historical trends, issues, and strategies in what practitioners call "service contracts" and patients call "insurance". With virtually no recourse to citations, documents, dates, and the like he describes the historical and current involvement of insurance companies and individual practitioners in the replacement of patients' accidentally damaged or lost contact lenses at something less than their original cost. It has a fascinating h~story all its own, and perhaps it will never be recorded elsewhere except in the confinement of legal archives. -9- OHS member Charles Letocha asks if any effort has been made to commemorate the septicentennial of the invention of eyeglasses. Are we allowing another century of eyewear to slip by unnoticed? Surely, some country must be issuing a commemorative postal stamp. After all, without spectacles the postal system, itself, would be hindered indeed! A fourth member of the Optometric Historical Society has informed the Secretary that he has amended his will to provide for a $1,000 legacy to the Society, thereby gaining a free membership for the rest of his life. For good reasons we do not divulge the names of "legacy" members (unless they wish). The commentary on "illustrated History of Early Antique Spectacles" on page 59 of the October, 1985, issue of this newsletter was without benefit of having seen the book itself. Its subsequent arrival justifies further description. Published in 1985 by the author himself it is a paper-backed 112 page book, 29 x 21 em. in size, and printed in heavy glossy paper. The foreword is by Margaret Mitchell, who, having worked closely with the author, tells us of Mr. Orr's extensive research, painstaking efforts, technical competence, and dedication. It is apparent that the book is entirely the creative undertaking of the author himself. It lacks much of the conventional format of books produced by trade book publishers with professional editorial staffs and formally adopted guidelines for such details as logical topical sequence and index, references, illustration numbering, aesthetic spacing, etc. Rather, it is obviously assembled as Mr. Orr must have personally decided, and the text and legends are just as he felt like expressing himself. Alas, the result is pure credibility, the refreshing impact of a witness whose account cannot be shaken by the most intense cross­ examination. Perhaps this evaluation can be borne out briefly by listing the titles of just a few of the 25 chapters: "Orators Spectacles", "The Rise and Fall of Benjamin Martin 1704-1782", Syllepsis Spectacles of William Storer", "The Astig Clip", "From Samuel Pepys Diary about his Vision", "Early Advertising by Opticians", and "Hallmarks on Spectacles and Abuses". -10- The final page includes only the following: "AND LASTLY-­ Without serious collectors of antique spectacles and instruments, how much of our present knowledge would have been lost for ever? HUGH ORR" The book is a fine contribution to historical optometric literature. Smoke in your~~~ A bit of lamp history is provided by Professor Robert L. Smith of the University of Illinois School of Architecture in an article entitled "Lighting Technology: from darkness to opportunity." It appears in the November 1986 issue of Architectural Lighting, Volume 1, November o (sic!), pages 56- 61. Several of the in color illustrations are of very early lamps, a tinder box, and a "fat-catching" grid for collecting fat in the fireplace to use in fat-burning lamps. They include a clay lamp, a "double crusie," a "betty,", and a "rushlight", one from the author's own collection and the others from the Early American Museum in Mahomet, Illinois. The author suggests that the cave dwellers probably used burning fagots when away from the glow of a cooking fire. The oldest known lamp was discovered in a cave in France, a 20,000- year-old sandstone bowl containing remnants of grease and a small piece of vegetable fiber that probably served as a wick. Referring to the much more recent fish-oil-fueled lamps of only 24 centuries ago he quotes a Greek writer as saying, "one could not enjoy the good things at the table until indulgence in the wine made the guests indifferent to the smoking lamps." The article then takes us through the eras o:f candles, gas and kerosene lighting, and the various electrically powered light sources. The article is well written and seemingly authoritative, though lacking reference citations. Earl~~ss technolo~~ Obsidian is a volcanic glass named after Obsius, the discoverer, according to Pliny. The fact that the edge of a newly chi~ped flake is sharper than surgical steel was only discovered in the 1970s, and it has led to the current use of obsidian blades in eye surgery, according to anthropologist Terry Stocker in an article entitled, "A Technological Mystery Resolved" in the Spring 1987 issue of American Heritage of Invention and Technology, Vol. 2, No. 3, p. 64. -11- Arthur Stocker also suggests that the effective use of obsidian blades for swords and other cutting tools jewelry, and mirrors by the Aztecs and Mayas accounts for their lack of metallurgy. It was not until the late 1700s that steel completely replaced obsidian in Mexican technology. Natural phenomena of yore: "Letters from Honeyhill" consists of correspondence of Cecilia Henne! Hendricks (1883-1969) between 1914 and 1931 compiled and edited by her daughter Cecilia Hendricks Wahl and published by Pruett Publishing Co., Boulder, Colorado, in 1986. On December 30, 1913, Miss Henne! left her English literature teaching positon at Indiana University to marry an apiarist homesteader and live for 17 years in the lonely Shoshone Valley of Northwestern Wyoming, (circa 44°50'N and 108° 50'W). She wrote very frequently and in fine, detailed, and intimate literary style to her family back in Indiana. Before citing several of the natural visual observations she made, let me remind ourselves that in today's milieu the opportunities for uncontaminated natural sights are becoming rare. Not only are our skies visibly affected by atmospheric factors in the daytime but at night there are fewer accessible places where one can escape the stray lighting of the sky by bright electric sources from remote towns and urban centers. Even the ubiquitous automobile headlights and brilliantly illuminated windows of nearby households make it difficult to attain the level of dark adaptation allowing a truly sparkling view of the starlit heavens. Astronauts have told us what we on Earth are missing, but hardly with the simple clarity of Mrs. Hendricks's accounts from the then almost unpopulated state of Wyoming. "You ought to see the view from here. In the daytime it is gorgeous. The mountains have the loveliest color. And the night! I never knew what a moonlight night was till tonight. I never saw such stars as we have out here. The strange thing is that they are the same stars I've always seen." Remember, she came from the town of Bloomington in which Hoagy Carmichael composed "Stardust". "I must tell you about the mirage we saw Saturday evening, one of the best I have ever seen. There had been a fall of snow the day before on the mountains and on the low slopes west of the Flat. Late Saturday evening the sun was shining just right to give the whole western part of the Flat the appearance of a great lake. I think the reflection of the snow and the sun was partly the cause, but we think the mirage was one of the big Shoshone Reservoir. Looking with the naked eye you could see a lake that was immense in size with the sun shining on the water. We got out the field glass that Joe has, thinking that would dispel! the illusion, and to our surprise we found that it not only did not -12- dispel! it, but increased our view of it. With the glass we could see the spray dashing up and down and the waves washing on the lake. I could not believe my eyes. Carrie looked first and when she reported that she could see the water dashing, I thought she had a pretty lively imagination. I looked then, very skeptically, and to my great surprise I saw great clouds of spray dash and change form. I could not believe at first that I was seeing right, but confirmed it by watching for quite a while. Later Joe saw the same thing when he looked through the glass. On January 7, 1917: "I wish you could be here tonight and see what Wyoming moonlight and snow can do to the scenery. You would be sure it was daylight and not moonlight. Now maybe you will think I am stretching it, but it is actually a fact that last night when·the men came home from the Union meeting I could see the buggies when they were at Werts and that is three quarters of a mile away. I am not a bit afraid to stay alone while John goes to a meeting when it is moonlight like this. On dark nights, it is a little different." March 10, 1918: "I wish you all could have been here the other night to see the Northern Lights display we saw. It is the most wonderful one I have ever seen. The main part of the display was in the east, not in the north. I think the reason was that there was a bank of clouds in the north, and the light was reflected around the cloud bank to the clear east. The whole east looked as if there were a great fire somewhere, only the light was a pink-red instead of a brick-red, and it was high up and did not come to the horizon. Part of the time this red glow was massed solid across the east. Then fingers of light stretched up from it, some of them pale and some of them deep red. Across the whole north there was a queer yellow-white light against which the clouds stood out in relief. After a while, the clouds massed near the horizon and the fingers of light stretched up from them toward the zenith. Across the west a great, long plume of white light stretched about half way between horizon and zenith, and in the south was another like it. It seems queer to me to see the light so far away from the north. It is as if a huge feather of lip;ht had been wafted away from the main body and was floating off on the atmosphere. The bright light in the east lasted for about an hour. Then the light travelled north, as the clouds there banked lower on the horizon, and the red color, though not as bright or as far spread, appeared in the northeast: ·The rays shooting up from the north grew brighter, too, and as long as we watched them still shot up skyward. I do not know how long the whole a·ffair lasted, as we did not watch it more than about an hour and a half." April 24, 1922, another mirage: "Powell is quite a city now with its new street electric lights. Ordinarily, we can see the row of lights from the upstairs windows, very plainly and clearly­ --almost five miles away. But part of the time we can see them from the downstairs. Isn't that queer and interesting? It is a matter of nightly interest to us now to see whether or not we can see the electric street lights of Powell." -13- Letters in the attic: In the above-mentioned Hendricks book, there are only three references to spectacles or eyes. In a letter dated July 25, 1917, Mrs. Hendricks jokingly quotes her husband, who said, " ... if Edward will merely walk into the examining office without his glasses on, his examination will stop at the first-loo~~n the part of the medical examiner." Quite evidently Edward was a young lad of draft age for World War I, and probably highly myopic. In a letter of June 3, 1930, Mrs. Hendricks described a 73 year old farmer neighbor, named Nauser, who "reads a lot" and had one eye removed a year earlier and was now ready for a glass eye. " ... the doctor fitted one in, and then told him it would never stay in unless Mr. Nauser had another operation to take up the slack in his eyelids. He said it had to be done. The doctor went to another room, and while he was gone the nurse came up to Mr. Nauser, put her arm around him, and told him not to believe the doctor, that all he wanted was Mr. Nauser's money." Mr. Nauser agreed and got a pair of dark glasses instead. On October 30, 1931, at which time Mrs. Hendricks was 48, she commented merely, "I had to have new spectacles," in explaining how she had spent some of the family's limited funds available during the Great Depression. It is, of course, probable that spectacles and eye problems were mentioned in her unpublished correspondence, which, according to her daughter editor, greatly exceeded the published letters in quantity. Nevertheless, the three brief and almost cryptic inclusions tell us a good deal about eye care of the era. Therein is a message. In the attics of our homes, or wherever else our family heirlooms accumulate, there may well be early letters containing dated comments about spectacles, visual problems, ocular conditions, eye doctors, opticians, and related topics that reveal even tiny bits about popular concepts, public knowledge, professional tactics, ophthalmic products, folklore, etc., that simply were not recorded in the published literature. Published literature, after all, is highly screened information catering to editorial whims and public censure. Not so with private correspondence. Should you discover, for example, that your great-grandmother described her eye examination to your great-grandfather in a letter while they were still courting, do send us at least a photocopy of the letter together with any related facts. A few such tidbits could well help us fill in the huge gaps of reliable historical information, especially about optometry during the several centuries prior to this one. H. W H. -14- Lest we forget: For several years this newsletter has recorded the names ·of optometric and optometrically related persons who have been memorialized and formally honored in one way or another and who, therefore, may be considered key persons in ou·r past or developing history. In this sense, then, the newsletter is a kind of informal registry, however incomplete. Such names then are quite automatically listed in the serial's index. The index for volumes 1 to 10 was included with the October 1979 issue. The cumulative index for volumes 11 to the .present is in file­ card form to be assembled and included with the last issue for 1989. Apparently fascinated by this conceiveably useless undertaking, OHS member Homer Hendrickson, kindly sent us .a list of 37 memorials and named awards. He derived these f·rom the catalogs of the Southern California College of Optometry and Pacific University College of Optometry and from the files of the Optometric Extension Program Foundation, of which he is Lmmedi·ate Past President. A search of our past issues, via the index, revealed that 14 of these 37 had already been entered. Here then are the other 23 in alphabetical order. The Charles A. Abel Awards to outstanding students at the Southern California College of Optometry. The Alvin Appelbaum 'Memorial Scholarsh~ Award to a deserving student at the Southern California College .of Optometry. The Irvin M Barish Medal awarded annually by the American Optomet.ric Foundation to a graduating student at each school tfor an exce.ptional paper. The Frederick W. Brock Memorial Medal awa!I"deai annually ey the American Optometric Foundation to·.a ~aduating student at each accredited school for an exceptional ;pape.r. The Donald A. Bybee Memorial Award to an outstanding graduating student at the Pacific University College of Optometry. The Reynaldo J. Carreon, Jr. Scholarship awarded to a Southern California College of Optometry student of 'Mexican lineage. " . The gaol;:~_!_. _De.2ne, Jr. Memorial Leade·rship Award by the California Optometric Association to a California resident student for outstanding leadership in the state's student · optometric organization. The Al .Qennis Award to a graduating student of the Southern California College of Optometry in recognition of excellence in student organization activities. The William Feinbloom Award, the gift of a low-vision diagnostic kit by Designs for Vision, Inc. to a final-year student at each accredited optometry school who has demonstrat.ed aptitude in low-vision studies. The Tole N. Greenstein Memorial Papers Award by the Optometric Extension Program Foundation for Optometric students in any accredited college for a paper on lens application to visual performance. -15- The Roy Marks Memorial Awards by the California Optical Laboratories Association to final year students presenting outstanding research papers at an annual symposium. The Lora McGr~~_Award by the California Vision Therapist Forum under auspices of the Optometric Extension Program Foundation, given to an optometric assistant for outstanding achievement and service. The Nic~_Meneaki~_MemQ±i~l-~~~rd by the Southern California College of Optometry class of 1978 to a final year student outstanding in ocular pharmacology. The Homer A. Nelson Scholarsh~~rd to a deserving upper class student at the Southern California College of Optometry. The Julius Neumueller Award by the American Academy of Optometry to a student for an outstanding paper in geometrical or physical optics. The Howard Preston Memorial Award by the South Bay (California) Optometric Society to a second-year student for greatest improvement in academic performance. The Bertram L. Roberts Memorial Award to a Southern California College of Optometry student for excellence in ocular pathology studies. The Carmen Sandoval Memorial Fund by the Auxiliary to the Arizona Optometric Association to provide financial aid to students from Arizona. The A.M. Skeffington Award by the College of Optometrists in Vision Development to a Pacific University student excelling in vision training studies: The Harold A. Snider Memorial Award to an upper class student at the Southern California College of Optometry for professionalism in clinical performance. The Arthur Y. Sugino Memorial Award by the Southern California Japanese-American Optometric Society to a final year Asian-American student excelling in clinical performance. The Robert K. Vinyard Memorial Award to provide financial aid to a deserving student at the Southern California College of Optometry. The William K. Yamamoto Memorial Award by the Southern California Japanese-American Optometric Society to a final year Asian-American student excelling in clinical performance. A funny m~stery: In September 1980 I received from G. Maurice Belanger, O.D., long time editor of the Q~g~dian_JQ~rnal Qf_QEtomet~~. a staple­ bound 44 page 22 x 28 em booklet of cartoons. The booklet included no text other thaQ cartoon punch lines, no author, no publisher, no copyright, no address, and no date. It was produced on heavy paper, and the cartoons each took up a full page and were drawn in large bold strokes which would readily allow several times reduction for publication purposes. The front cover cartoon is shown here reduced to 27% of its original dimensions. The booklet was very shopworn from apparently frequent handling, perhaps in a reception room. -16- Dr. Belanger did not know or recall the origin nor how he happened to have it. He gave it to me for my cartoon collection. From the cartooned styles of clothing, spectacle frames and auto~obiles, I would date the cartoons circa 1970 or a bit earlier. -~.ferences are made to "optometrist", "optician", "eye doctor", "contact lenses", "dishwasher", "dentist", "CBS" (network), "U.S. mail", and "psychiatrist". These identities ~~.~also supPort my circa 1970 or late 1960's estimate. ~ My further guess is that the author was a professional ·. · U.artoori.lst who may have assembled these as a booklet of samples '· ~ in hopes of selling his a creative services to an optometric publication, perhaps to Dr. Belanger. That the cartoonist did not include at least a signature, a pen-name, or initials on even one of the cartoons is puzzling. The cartoons are really very good. Editors H. W H. Henry W Hofstetter Douglas K. Penisten, The Ocular Heritage Society will meet at the Museum of the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, 655 Beach St., San Francisco, CA 94101, on April 17-18, 1987. President Alan York, O.D., invites the attendance of all interested persons. Further information may be had by calling Secretary, Susan Cronenwett at the museum address, telephone 415-561-8500. 1987-18-01-001 1987-18-01-002 1987-18-01-003 1987-18-01-004 1987-18-01-005 1987-18-01-006 1987-18-01-007 1987-18-01-008 1987-18-01-009 1987-18-01-010 1987-18-01-011 1987-18-01-012 1987-18-01-013 1987-18-01-014 1987-18-01-015 1987-18-01-016