Franklin wore 'em. And you may not know it, but Jefferson did, too. In this rebroadcast of one of our earliest episodes, radio producer Sean Tubbs (of the Charlottesville Podcast Network) interviews scholar Katherine Stebbins McCaffrey who came to the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies to study Jefferson's interest in eyeglasses as part of larger look at the history of spectacles and how their design and use changed in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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Vigentte with Jefferson's reading glasses with case and replacement lenses as well his green-tinted spectacles
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Jefferson’s sketch for eyeglasses sent in a letter to John McAllister (gift of the late Barbara McAllister)
