Normalizing Vision: The Representation and Use of Spectacles and Eyeglasses in Victorian Britain

Abstract

This study explores the representation and use of Victorian visual aids, specifically focusing on how the design of spectacle and eyeglass frames shaped ideas of the 'normal' and 'abnormal' body. It contributes to our understanding of assistive technologies in the Victorian period by showcasing the usefulness of material evidence for exploring how an object was produced and perceived. By placing visual aids in their medical and cultural context for the first time, it will show how the study of spectacle and eyeglass frames develops our understanding of Victorian society more broadly. Contemporaries drew upon industrialization, increasing education, and the proliferation of print to explain a rise in refractive vision 'errors'. Through exploring the design of three spectacle frames from the London Science Museum's collections, this study will show how the representations and manufacture of visual aids transformed in response to these wider changes. The material evidence, as well as contemporary newspapers, periodicals, and medical texts, reveal that visual aids evolved from an unusual to a more mainstream device. It argues that visual aids are a unique assistive technology, one that is able to inform our understanding of how Victorians measured the body and constructed ideas of 'normalcy' and 'abnormalcy'.