Trivial Trivia - taking trivia to new levels

[Eva Elisabeth]

Hi Kathy, from this site:
http://www.antiquespectacles.com/topics/...incoln.htm

"We have seen it written numerous times that 'Lincoln probably bought his first pair of eyeglasses on May 28, 1856 in Bloomington Illinois, for 37 ½ cents'. At the time he was accompanied by another lawyer friend, Henry Clay Whitney and they both planned to attend a convention called to form a new political party. They had been on their way to the Chicago and Alton Depot Railway Station to meet some arrivals from Chicago. The glasses were purchased in a tiny jewelry shop with the remark by Lincoln that he ‘had got to be forty-seven years old and kinder needed them.’

However, based on the work of Alan McBrayer, we now believe it may have been John Phillips who fit Lincoln as early as 1854, likely in Springfield. Phillips claims to have made and delivered Lincoln's spectacles ('his first pair', in 1854 during the session of the State Legislature (from newspaper article, 'Lincoln's Spectacles, Chicago Daily Tribune, July 31, 1883). This appears to trump the claim of Henry Clay Whitney (in the previous paragraph) that he bought his first pair in Bloomington in May, 1856. (Whitney, Henry C., Life on the Circuit with Lincoln. Boston: Estes and Lauiat, 1892, p. 75)"