Dr. Fleishman was the chief of ophthalmology at Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, MA, when he began to have trouble with his own eyes.
After a growth on his right eyelid damaged his cornea, he was forced to begin wearing corrective lenses. Then came treatment for a partially detached retina and severe carpal-tunnel syndrome. That condition left the eye surgeon with trembling hands and, in 2001, he was forced to retire. "My life just collapsed," Dr. Fleishman says.
What to do with the void in his life?
Finally, a family friend advised him to take another look at what he had left behind. "If you are going to focus on something, focus on optics," Cindy Port recalls telling him. "That is your love."
So that's just what he did.
Dr. Fleishman originally set out to publish a paper on spectacle history in a professional journal. But as he grew more captivated by what he discovered, he decided to launch a Web site instead to cover it all. Gathering pictures of spectacles that had belonged to everyone from Beethoven to Mark Twain, he was struck by how much the invention had changed the course of history.
"I saw myself putting together this puzzle and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger," he says. "Eyeglasses are taken for granted and yet they have had a profound impact on mankind. We are trying to show that they are important and deserve more recognition."
He's found new meaning and purpose.
Curators and collectors say that Dr. Fleishman's Web site has been an important contribution because it has connected spectacle enthusiasts around the world and offers instant access to images and information once available only from obscure publications and dusty archives.
Even better, he's made sure his project survives by revising his will to leave money to keep it going.
Hats off to Dr. Fleishman.
More at Eyeglass Buff Makes Historical Finds of a Spectacular Sort by Robert Tomsho in the Wall St Journal
Posted by Jill Fallon at April 7, 2006 4:59 PM | Permalink