SunglassesFashion

The research and work of 18th century English optician James Ayscough often crops up in discussions on the history of the sunglasses. But, as it turns out, the history of eyewear intended to block sunlight’s glare dates to prehistoric times.

From the “snow goggles” of the ancient Inuit and Yupik peoples of the Arctic to Foster Grant’s mass-produced sunglasses in the 1920s, there have been notable specs that, one way or another, led to the sunglasses’ popularity today.

James Ayscough’s tinted specs

– English optician and scientific-equipment maker James Ayscough is a pioneer in making sunglasses, though his intention wasn’t exactly to make them for sunlight protection but for vision correction.

Historians note that in the 1750s, Ayscough began making color tinted spectacles that bore a double-hinge side design in a shop in London which he operated sometime between 1740 and 1759. Ayscough’s tinted spectacles are widely attributed to be the archetype of the sunglasses as it is known today.

Sam Foster’s mass-produced sunglasses –

In the late 1920s, American plastics molding and manufacturing firm Foster Grant began mass-producing sunglasses that were intended to protect their wearers’ eyes from sunlight.

The firm, which was founded by Sam Foster in 1919 to produce ladies’ hair accessories, sold its first pair of sunglasses at a Woolworth retail store (a pioneer of the five-and-dime store concept) in 1929 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The item was a huge hit with the sunbathing public at the time.

Polarized Sunglasses

– In 1936, Edwin Land, the man behind the Polaroid brand, began developing polarized sunglasses.

The eyewear was based on the a polarizing material which Land invented in 1929, and was different from other sunglasses at the time as it could screen out glare and not just darken a field of view.