SOUTHBRIDGE, MA (WGGB/WSHM) -- Over the course of more than 150 years, the American Optical Company turned Southbridge into a manufacturing and innovative powerhouse, earning the town the nickname the “Eye of the Commonwealth.”

The American Optical Company was founded in Southbridge in 1869. By the early 20th century, it had become the largest eyewear manufacturer not just in the country, but in the entire world.

It all began in 1833 with a jeweler named William Beecher, who had a small shop in downtown Southbridge. At the time, eyeglasses in America were imported from England, but Beecher thought he could make them better. He turned his jewelry making skills toward making spectacles. “By 1839, he had a factory and then it became American Optical Corporation in 1869 when a number of people bought shares, but one of the most important ones was George Wells,” said Dick Whitney, executive director of the Optical Heritage Museum.

Wells was an optical visionary. Realizing Southbridge was turning from a textile mill town into an optical manufacturing center, he built a factory in 1872, utilizing water power from the Quinebaug River.

Whitney said Wells was a man of many talents and, by the early 1900s, he had American Optical humming. “George Wells was a big inventor and he worked on how to streamline production. Then we got into developing lenses and, by 1916, was the turning point scientifically because they hired doctor Edward Tillyer - Doc Tillyer,” he explained.

American Optical hired Tillyer to head their new research lab, a move that would prove instrumental in cementing the company’s legacy of groundbreaking technology. That included the Tillyer lens, the standard for corrected-curve lenses, as well as the Calobar lens, a staple sunglass for U.S. armed forces.

Much of Tillyer’s work involved military applications. “He worked on the atomic bomb and he had 165 patents. He also hired Dr. Estelle Glancy and together, they were a power house. She actually has the progressive lens patent in the U.S. in 1924,” Whitney added.

During her career, Dr. Glancy was the only female scientist in the entire world of eyewear lens design. Her work helped to create some of the most significant advances in vision correction in the 20th century, including the first lensometer to measure the power of a lens, now standard equipment in optical stores around the globe.

American Optical wasn’t just an innovator when it came to eyewear technology. The company changed Hollywood by pioneering widescreen cinema and was instrumental in the development of fiber optics. The company was ahead of the curve with design and fashion.

From their iconic Saratoga sunglasses worn by President John F. Kennedy to their original pilot sunglasses, the first worn on the moon, American Optical left its mark. Even the original Barbie made a splash with white cat-eye shades suspiciously similar to those produced at the time by American Optical.

“So, we believe there must have been some influence for the famous sunglasses - the white sunglasses that were released with Barbie in 1959,” said Debbie Schiro, director of the Optical Heritage Museum.

Perhaps the most famous pair of glasses ever created by American Optical were the brainchild of Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli. A priceless, one-of-a-kind pair from 1955, made of platinum and set with 201 diamonds, is on display to the public as the museum’s centerpiece.

The glasses were stolen in 2001. There were some claims that there might have been some indications of where they went, but nothing was ever proven. “The trail went cold,” Schiro said.

That is, until a few months ago. Identified by a jewelry store, the museum received a call they’d been waiting for for 25 years. “And Dick didn’t believe it at first. He said, ‘There’s no way!’ After the call, he said ‘Deb, somebody called about the glasses…there’s no way’ because we just assumed that whoever had stolen them either dismantled it, sold the diamonds for their value, and the platinum for their value,” Schiro said.

The glasses were the real deal. After getting them back recently, they were formally unveiled after more than two decades.

American Optical started in Southbridge and grew to worldwide dominance. Like many companies, it was eventually broken up and sold off, slowly phasing out its world headquarters and manufacturing in the small central Massachusetts town.

The rich legacy of American Optical remains on full display at the Optical Heritage Museum. “You will absolutely be delighted coming here, discovering everything you didn’t know about eyewear, so that’s what I would want to leave with your audience,” Schiro said.

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