The world’s first museum dedicated entirely to contact lenses has opened in Oregon, USA, thanks to a donation of artefacts from a Perth doctor’s collection.
Simply named The Contact Lens Museum, the new museum features a chronological selection of more than 2,000 pieces charting the evolution of contact lenses, from early glass and plastic scleral lenses through to the advent of corneal designs and the modern gas permeable era and beyond.
“We’re really excited to share these treasures with all who have an interest,” said co-founder Patrick Caroline. “We were fortunate to have the dream of the museum kickstarted by the donation of items from the personal collection of Dr Don Ezekiel from Perth, Australia.”
Dr Ezekiel was a founding fellow of the Contact Lens Society of Australia and an Honorary Life Member of the International Society of Contact Lens Specialists. He received Australia's third highest honour, ‘Member of the Order of Australia’, in 1999 for his work in the field.
A broader Museum of the Eye, featuring over 38,000 eye-related pieces, is also set to open in 2020 at the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s headquarters in San Francisco.
