Echoes of the past: Opticians - part of a profession or a trade?

This week’s Echoes of the Past turns back the clock 75 years to July 1939. The week the issue went to press, 200 enthusiasts attended the world’s first Sci-Fi convention, Worldcon, at the Caravan Hall in New York.

Echoes of the Past’s remit to give glimpses of what the profession was like in days gone by, and Eric Bowes’ article, What the Public Expects of the Modern Trained Optician offers exactly that. Bowes looked at the public’s perception of opticians and questioned whether they considered themselves part of a profession or a trade, and drew comparisons with the legal profession’s movement towards commerce.