Lecture & Reception | May 28, 2015 | 3 - 5 pm
Author/Lecturer: Robert S. Sherins, MD (UCSF, School of Medicine, Class of 1963) 
Lange Room, 5th Floor, UCSF Library - Parnassus
Registration is required.

Exhibition | May 2015 - April 2016
Join UCSF Archives & Special Collections and the UCSF Library as we explore the traditions of ocular prosthetics through the story of family traditions over centuries and across two continents. This exhibition demonstrates the evolution and skillful craftsmanship of Müller-Uri and Danz families, as well as the science and art of ocular prosthetics.

Modern methods of creating ocular prostheses can be traced to the ingenuity of Ludwig Müller-Uri a glassblower from Lauscha, Germany. After training with an ophthalmologist, he became an ocularist (prosthetic eye-maker). By 1835, he began using a better quality of glass from the local factory. It was not until 1885 that the best cryolite glass became available, which was crucial for the patient’s tolerance of the prosthesis.

Around 1880, Amandus Müller, granduncle of Gottlieb Theodore Danz, Sr., created 13 artfully manufactured eye-kits of the blown glass eye models depicting diseases that could be used as teaching devices. In 1915, Gottleib T. Danz, Sr. immigrated with his family to the United States with one of his granduncle’s kits. After the death of Gottlieb T. Danz, Sr., his widow gave that kit to grandson, Phillip Danz (also an ocularist). In 1963, Phillip donated the kit to Professor Michael Hogan, MD, then Chairman of the UCSF Ophthalmology Department. Today the kit is preserved with UCSF Archives & Special Collections, where it remains preserved today.