Website Goals

The On-Line Museum and Encyclopedia of Vision Aids.

7050+ images to view and enjoy
1665+ Contributing Educators
870+ Participating Institutions
370+ webpages of information

Recent News Articles: July 2013, Treasures Magazine and Winter 2014, Pitt Magazine
April 6, 2006 Wall Street Journal featured antiquespectacles.com on the front page.

Website Goals

Las Parcas, circa 1820-23, by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828), P0757. ©Museo Nacional del Prado	Foundation of Holy María Maggiore of Rome. II. The Patrician reveals his dream to the Pope Liberio by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 –1682), P0995. ©Museo Nacional del Prado	The Cure of Folly, The Surgeon, the Extraction of the Fool's Stone, 1556, by Jan Sanders van Hemessen (1500-1566), P1541. ©Museo Nacional del Prado	The Contemporary Poets. A Reading of Zorilla at the Painter's Studio. Chronology, 1846 by Antonio María Esquivel y Suárez de Urbina, (1806-1857), P4299. ©Museo Nacional del Prado	Table covered with paintings, a mechanical violin, books and other objects in trompe l’oeil, 1779 by Charles-Joseph Flipart (1721-1797), P7823. ©Museo Nacional del Prado
All the special images on this page are courtesy of the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

To share images of the finest and most interesting historic vision aids in both private and public collections from around the world.
To share images of some of the greatest artwork showing vision aids, especially antique eyeglasses.
To educate interested visitors and professionals and thereby stimulate further research regarding vision aids and their history.
To increase public awareness and thereby nurture a deeper appreciation in general for this topic.
To accumulate some of the wealth of knowledge which exists regarding antique vision aids.
To introduce the OAICC (international) and the OHS (American), the two important collectors’ clubs.
To highlight the impact the optical lens has had on civilization over the last 720 years.
To become an important repository of data and information related to many of the most significant optical objects in existence in the world.
To be a site where major discoveries of lost and missing optical treasures of all sorts, including artwork, can be shared with an interested public.
To complement other worthwhile websites which have information on the topic of the optical lens.
To create a forum where scholarly people can have a dynamic exchange of information and ideas.
To become, in time, a general meeting place for curators, eye professionals, art enthusiasts, collectors and/or anyone else interested in the history of the optical lens