Medical instrument collections are neglected primary source material that can be used to produce original scholarship on thehistory of medicine and the history of optometry. Opening museum collections and associated archives to researchers allowscollections managers to simultaneously address curatorial backlogs, facilitate research, and provide a foundation for craftingpublic-facing exhibits. In order to add to the historiography, research should not only focus on the technical aspects of theinstruments, but also employ theory to examine of the meaning of the objects in context. In this way, objects can be a vehicle forunderstanding broader themes in the history of medicine and reveal their utility as material evidence of the impact of medicineon society and culture. This two-part article includes a historiography of ophthalmic instruments and a case study in which an assemblage of ophthalmometers in the Archives & Museum of Optometry collection are treated as “text” to explore the nature of power in the doctor-patient relationship in early optometry.
2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the American Optometric Association’s first Department of Education and the launch of its first distance learning program. This article traces the evolution of the AOA’s distance continuing education strategy over the last century, highlighting three generations of educational technology and modes of delivery the association has employed: textual materials by mail, audiovisual media through library loan, and interactive digital modules over the world wide web. The author also explores the relationship between the warfare and the development of educational technology and pedagogy at each stage of development and introduces the reader to the AOA’s newest iteration of its distance learning web portal,EyeLearn.™
Dr. Minerva H. Weinstein (1893-1982), was the first woman licensed by examination to practice optometry in New York City and the fourth woman licensed in the State of New York. In 1915, Dr. Weinstein graduated from the American Institute of Optometry, becoming the third generation in her family to forge a career in applied optics. She began her practice at one of three family-owned optical shops in the Bronx, where she remained for more than 40 years, diligently serving the needs of her community’s most vulnerable members and tirelessly researching new techniques to improve care for the most difficult vision problems. During her career, she founded the Bronx County Optometric Society and organized the local Woman’s Auxiliary for the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, as well as the New York state affiliate of the national organization. She was a founding member of the Bronx County Optometric Service, the first free optometry clinic in New York, and went on to expand the service to two additional locations. She also participated in professional women’s organizations, charitable foundations and civic clubs, and represented optometry at community events. Dr. Weinstein’s narrative is unique, but in many ways her family’s story was typical of many immigrants arriving in the U.S. during the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who were successful in improving their lot and passing on a professional legacy to the younger generation−and it is a story that is particularly common among optometry’s founders, and one that resonates in the first two decades of the twenty first century. The story of her career, and the personal details that serve as its backdrop, are also representative of the many challenges faced by the generation of professional women who helped establish the profession of optometry during the inter-war years. This biographical sketch, made possible through research in Minerva Weinstein Papers (MSS 501.4.11) held at the Archives & Museum of Optometry, sheds light on the tremendous debt optometry owes to its founding mothers and highlights the work that remains to complete the narrative of optometry history through new scholarship in hidden collections.
Featured objects from the Lois Bing papers, including her original license issued by the Ohio State Board of Optometry that refers to her as "him" and "he," and a letter sent to the International Library, Archives & Museum recounting her experience as a woman applicant to The Ohio State University's optometry program.
Kirsten Hebert discusses increasing access to the museum collections at the Archives & Museum of Optometry through transfer of the general optometry collections to the University of Pikeville's Allara Library.
This article briefly outlines the history and purpose of American fraternities, the first optometric fraternity, Phi Omicron, and lists early collegiate optometric fraternities.
Maria Dablemont (1919-1992), co-founder of the Optometric Historical Society (OHS) and head librarian for the American Optometric Association (AOA) from 1964 to 1988, had a profound impact on the profession of optometry in the United States. At a crucial moment for the AOA, Dablemont helped to pioneer a new, forward-looking professional identity for the American optometrist, and articulate an origin story that mapped the future the association was plotting for the profession to its past. In part one of this biography, we havedrawn a sketch of Dablemont’s life before joining the AOA (1919-1964) and explore how her life experience made her the perfect agent to help the AOA to craft a new ideal of what it could mean to be an optometrist. In part two, we will trace Dablemont’s personal and professional development through the lens of the history of the International Library, Archives & Museum and the OHS from 1964 until her retirement in 1988.
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