Object Name:

Mountaineering Goggles

Maker / Manufacturer:

Foster Grant Company, Leominster, Massachusetts

Material:

Metal, cloth, leather, glass, vinyl

Designer:

Unknown

Description:

Mountaineering goggles with black lenses, wire frames covered with green canvas, and leather trim; fur lined with adjustable strap.  The goggles fold to fit into brown vinyl case.  Made for the military during World War II.

The Foster Grant Company was a pioneer in the plastics industry.  Founded by Samuel Foster, Jr. (1883-1966) in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1919, the company began as a manufacturer of hair ornaments and combs.  During its history, Foster Grant advanced injection molding technology, produced raw plastic materials, and finished plastic articles.  In 1960, the company traced its “modern history” to 1931 when Sam Foster purchased a German Eckert and Zeigler injection molding machine making Foster Grant one of the first companies in the U.S. to employ the new technology.

Joseph Foster succeeded his father as president in 1943 and transformed the company into the world’s largest sunglass manufacturer.  In the 1940s Foster Grant manufactured military products for WW II.  The WW II era objects, as well as photographs and illustrations of gas mask valves, torpedo parts, mountaineering goggles, and letters from the war department thanking Foster Grant for their “excellent cooperation” and “outstanding efforts” for the manufacture of military products, suggests the company played an important role in the American war effort.

Dimensions:

2 1/8 x 8 in. (5.4 x 20.3 cm) goggles

Date:

c. 1945

Credit Line:

Gift of Joanne St. Jean

Accession Number:

2004.136