Opera Glasses
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: This is a metal instrument with black barrels. The eyecaps, probably of tortoise shell, are marked “H. WALDSTEIN · NEW YORK.” The objective lenses are 38 mm diameter. A central wheel adjusts the focus. The soft pouch is blue velvet.
label: Description
content: The signature refers to Henry Waldstein, a Jewish immigrant who began working as an optician in New York around 1840. Some of the instruments in his shop were made by his relatives in Munich and in Vienna.
label: Description
content: Ref: "Waldstein," in <i>Illustrated New York</i> (New York, 1888), p. 198.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Optics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Jane and Mary Henle
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.336788
label: catalog number
content: 336788
label: accession number
content: 1978.2216
objectType: label: Object Name
content: opera glasses
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: closed: 2 in x 4 9/16 in x 3 15/16 in; 5.08 cm x 11.5824 cm x 10.0076 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall; glasses: 2 in x 4 5/8 in x 5 1/8 in; 5.08 cm x 11.7475 cm x 13.0175 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall; pouch: 5 1/2 in x 5 1/4 in x 1 1/4 in; 13.97 cm x 13.335 cm x 3.175 cm