Whitney's AO History Page

American Optical History Table of Contents

Web	www.dickwhitney.net
www.opticalheritagemuseum.org

http://www.dickwhitney.net/RBWAOHistoryIndex.html

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AO Reunion Luncheons

Next AO Reunion Luncheon is
Tuesday June 11th, 2013 at 11:30 - Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center

AO Main Plant ~1910, with clear view of the Grand Trunk Railway-

AO Sculpture

OHM/IEEE Oct 26, 2012 Event in Southbridge to Honor AO Fiber Optics/Eli Snitzer / Will Hicks

AO Southbridge Facilities

View Historical Listings / Timelines in American Optical's History

Summary of Doc Tillyers first 100 of 157 AO patents as listed in Tim Tillyers book

Doc Tillyer and other AO Lens Desigers

Bob Haynes recalls the AO Fredrick Frame Plant origins and startup from Southbridg
Pdf Download - 132mb

AO History Chronology Slideshow -
8mb Download of executable

First Sunglasses on the Moon in 1969 - AO's of Course
Moon photo by Dick Whitney

Product Firsts at AO
Rev 7-Feb-13

AO's Anti-reflection coating development / product historical info

Interactive Maps of AO complex, Walking tour and Optical Related sites in Southbridge

AO's Lensometer - a ground breaking invention for Ophthalmic Optics

May 2009 Lensometer Display (courtesy of the Optical Heritage Museum)
at the Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center

AO and WWI

This show which aired in Aug 2010 includes AO/Optical Heritage Museum
Variable Density Goggles borrowed for this production

Explorer: 24 Hours After Hiroshima premiere was on
August 17th, 2010 on the National Geographic Channel.

AO designed type E-1 dark adaptation goggles for WWII pilots

AO and WWII war effort

Recollections of Former AO Employees
Check back for update soon - Stories are welcome!
Rev 19-Apr-13

JFK's Glasses with AO Executive lenses and the letter rec'd by AO on the Day of his Assasination!

OHM info onf U.S.Presidents and their Eyeglassews
http://www.opticalheritagemuseum.org/Industry/HistoricalPresEyeglasses.htm

Download this tour brochure from 1974
2mb pdf

AO Family Day photos from 1974

Download April 1940 AO Vision Magazine (32mb pdf)

Southbridge - 1907 photo of AO, Bausch and Lomb and Zeiss Execs (a rare get together of Industry leaders)
Optical Heritage Museum photo

1907 and 1908 Photos of AO, Bausch and Lomb and Zeiss Mgt/ article on 1888 Tarriff for importing lenses to US.

AO History as described in 1933 Document

Brochure from ~1960 titled "This is AO"

American Flags at AO

American Optical logos' through the year

AO Employees with 25 or more years of service... in 1917 !!!
Newly restored image from Wellworth Magazine from Aug/Sept 1917
Courtesy of the Optical Heritage Museum

AO Management Photo by the Main Plant - ~late 1920's early 1930s
Donated by Jim Alden

Yvette (Martel) Peloquin in AO Lens Polishing operation - late 1940s
(photo courtesy of Yvette Peloquin)

The People of AO

In Memory Of:
Recalling those AO employees who have passed on - Rev. May 21, 2013

AO's first National Sales Meeting - Dec 29-31st, 1968
(Held at Southbridge High School)
Download Book provided by Wade Cloyd

AO "Then and Now"

The AO Southbridge Powerhouse

The AO Southbridge Warehouse

William Beecher -
The founder of AO in 1833

William Beechers home c1890 at 185 Main Street Southbridge (JEL Digital Treasures image)

AO's Transportation Fleet in Southbridge - May 1964 photo

AO "The Descision is Yours" booklet against Unionization - Feb 1962

Jan and Dick Whitney stand in front of AO San Francisco
Branch headquarters - Oct 1966

The "AO" Optical Heritage Museum

The "Universalist Church" Building at
368 Main St., Southbridge

Optical Heritage Museum slideshow
5mb Download of executable
Click on screen to advance slide

A view of American Optical Southbride Complex(top) taken
from Notre Dame Church (~1916)
Image from JEL digital Treasures:
CWMars on-line digital Library

AO Ophthalmic History

AO's 1921 Article titled "The story in a pair of Spectacles"
(3.5 mb pdf download)

How and why AO First made spectacle lenses in mass in 1888

AO's Ophthalmic Lens Designers- Rev. Sept 11, 2012
Dr. Tillyer, Dr. Estelle Glancy and more!

Dr Estelle Glancy in her own words! - AO and Evolution of a Lens Designer

AO Low Vision Aids

Don Whitney and Ophthalmic Optics

Dick Whitney and Ophthalmic Optics

Glass Executive Manufacturing prior to Southbridge Closure
Longest running ophthalmic product line in AO's history

AO's Permalite coating (1980)
Worlds first tintable, abrasion resistant coating for plastic lenses

AO's Photolite lens - Worlds first plastic photochromic lens
Rev 28-Jul-11

AO and Anti-Reflection Coatings

AO / Polarized lenses

AO Southbridge R&D Building - Life Magazine for Todd AO

Todd-AO-
55th Anniversary celebrated in 2010
New Todd AO Article posted 25-May-12

Above photo showing movie Oklahamo still courtesy of http://www.in70mm.com/todd_ao/index.htm

AO Fiber Optics
Details of IEEE Oct 26th Southbridge event honoring AO Fiber Optics / Dr. Elias Snitzer
Also to be Honored- Will Hicks
Come join us.

AO Scientific Instruments

Optical Heritage Museum collection-
AO Gift to Charles Prentice c1900; he designed the first trial lens set for the Industry and AO

AO Vision 1930s article

Feb 2010 photo of Optical Heritage Museum collection of AO Trial set from the early 1900s
(restored by Donna Silverberg- Assitant Curator)

Dr. Bernie Grolman 2002 Interview on his Non Contact Tonometer Invention (provided by David Taylor)

AO Clock - Time set in 1916 synchronized by Radio

AO Wellsworth Nov 1919 Catalogue cover
showing a Fits-U-Windsor style Frame

AO Frames
Rev 14-Aug-12

AO Glass Plant

AO Frames Sales Force of 1947

AO Safety

AO Putnam CT Plant

Dave LaMarre / Wes Reed Article on AO Sunglass History (1975)

Ear Protection Boston Herald article - April 1962

AO & Lens Impact Strength

AO Monoplex Plastic Eye Division info / 1949 Brochure /recollections
Rev 15-Aug-12

1971 AO Product Directory Catalogue

Pope Pius XII and his gift - AO Glasses in early 1950s

AO Paintings

AO Main Plant Demolition ("DOD Project" /
Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center) Construction

Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center - Former AO Main Plant

Clarifying when AO closed in Southbridge

AO Main Plant History

Newly discovered 1940s model of the AO Main Plant (Optical Heritage Museum)
Jeanine McElroy helps to assemble the puzzle!
June 16, 2010 Dick Whitney Photo above

A rare view of the AO Main Plant (Left - new brick construction, Right Old wood building) ~1895
Image from JEL digital Treasures:
CWMars on-line digital Library

March 12. 2009 photos of the Former AO Main Plant, now the Southbridge Hotel and Conference center.
November 1945 AO News Article about "Steeple Tom"
Dick Whitney photos

A look inside the AO Main Plant Clock Tower

Former AO Lens Plant "2L",
now building 50 and Power plant image from http://local.live.com/

AO Parking lot (behind Main Plaint) ~1938; John Wells had the marking for latitude and longitude put on the roof of the car shed,
to use in his approach to the Southbridge Airport

AO Southbridge Facilities Rev 06-Jul-11

A view from the air in the early 1970s of the AO Southbridge Facility -
The AO Main plant is shown in the upper left, power plant smokestack in the middle.
The Lens, Frame and Warehouse buildings are the three prominent ones in the upper part of the photo.
Note the "claw" on the Glass Plant to vent the heat from the glass operation
Optical Heritage Museum photo