For the nerds of us, there is real joy to perusing glasses. They help us read, of course, but we also think they are some of the coolest material objects around. It's believed that eyeglasses were first invented between 1268 and 1289 in Italy. Since then, styles like the pince-nez and the lorgnette have helped us with our 20/20 game. We've searched near(-sighted) and far(-sighted) for the most excellent eyeglasses we could find. From George Washington's specs to sunglasses too cool to take off in the subway, here are the finest four-eyes from the NYPL Digital Collections. 

Three Men Inside Car, One Facing Camera Through Window: Couple at Platform, Woman with Glasses and Long Hair Smiles at Camera, Partner Looks Toward Her by Alen MacSweeney, 1977-1979

Actor Paul Hipp as Buddy Holly in a scene fr. the Broadway musical "Buddy" by Martha Swope, 1990

 

Portrait of an unidentified man with glasses by Dorothea Lange, 1935

Negatives 1 by Diana Davies, 1970

 

Montage (glasses and eyes) by Morris Huberland, 1940

 

Three participants in the Gay Liberation Front march on Times Square, New York City, 1969 by Diana Davies, 1969

Mahatma Gandhi, photographer unknown, date unknown

Pedestrian by Walter Silver, 1986

Washington's Spectacles, photographer unknown, 1860-1920

 

Teenage boy in glasses holding a cigarette by Leonard Smoke, 1968-1970

Hugh Walpole (seated, with spectacles and cigarette), photographer unknown, date unknown

 

F.M. Esfandiary, photographer unknown, 1963

 

Gay Liberation Front pickets Time, Inc. [8] by Diana Davies, 1969

 

Kingsley Amis, photographer unknown, date unknown

Christopher Street Liberation Day, 1971 [40] by Diana Davies, 1971

 

Gerald Freedman and Peter Gennaro [?] in rehearsal for the stage production West Side Story by Martha Swope, 1979

 

Teenage girl in sunglasses by Leonard Smoke, 1968-1970

 

Christopher Street Liberation Day, 1971 [7] by Diana Davies, 1971

 

Michael Ackerman, photographer unknown, date unknown

 

Glen Abbott, photographer unknown, year unknown

 

Walter Abel, photographer unknown, date unknown

 

Kissing Doesn't Kill (Protesters holding sign) by Gran Fury, date unknown

 

Alex Alexander, photographer unknown, date unknown

 

Gay rights demonstration, Albany, New York, 1971 [2] by Diana Davies, 1971

 

Gittings at typewriter, photographer unknown, 1970-1989

 

Want to find more amazing images? Browse our Digital Collections, where you'll find hundreds of thousands of digitized items from the New York Public Library.