Object Name:

Sunglasses

Maker / Manufacturer:

Foster Grant Company, Leominster, Massachusetts

Material:

Nylon and glass

Designer:

Unknown

Description:

Women’s sunglasses with black plastic frames with rhinestones along the top, dark green glass lenses.

During their history, Foster Grant produced raw plastic materials, molding resins and finished plastic articles, most notably sunglasses.  The company’s founder, Sam Foster sold the first pair of Foster Grant's at Woolworth on the Atlantic City Boardwalk in 1929.  The company was reportedly the first to market sunglasses as a mass appeal item and by the 1940s was the world’s largest sunglass manufacturer. In the 1960s, the company’s advertising campaign, “Sunglasses of the Stars” featured celebrities Peter Sellers, Carroll Baker, Anthony Quinn, Mia Farrow, Robert Goulet, Julie Christie, Woody Allen, Raquel Welch, Terence Stamp, and Vanessa Redgrave, among others, and produced one of the era’s most memorable lines, “Who’s that behind those Foster Grants?”

Dimensions:

1 3/4 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. (4.4 x 14 x 14 cm)

Date:

1950s

Credit Line:

Gift of Chet Fantozzi

Accession Number:

2003.171