Excellent, mid-19^th century souvenir commemorates the famous Battle of Gettysburg using an original Civil War bullet drilled to fit a small glass lens showing views of the battlefield. This particular specimen is made using a .58 caliber, 3-groove Williams’ patent (type I) bullet for rifle muskets. The embedded “Stanhope” lens (an extremely small glass bead with black and white photographic images) shows the Buford & Reynolds statues, the Pickett’s Charge scene from the Cyclorama painting, and a third image. Oxidation clouds some of the images here. A very fine, eye-catching little souvenir of the Battle of Gettysburg. Lenses were made in France.

Stanhopes or Stanho-scopes are optical devices that enable the viewing of microphotographs. A Stanhope lens is a simple, one-piece microscope invented by Charles, the third Earl of Stanhope. It is a cylinder of glass with each end curved outwards, one being more convex than the other. Because its construction is simple and economical, it was popular in the 19th century. In 1857, René Dagron modified the lens by keeping one curved end to refract light while sectioning the other end flat and locating it at the focal plane of the curved side. Dagron used the modified Stanhope lens to mount microscopic pictures.   [jet] [ph:jet]

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