The Lionel Topaz Memorial Library of Visual Science was dedicated October 31, 1955 and was located in Fry Hall. In 1987, due to cost increases and difficulty in maintaining a current optometry collection, the Topaz Library merged with the Health Sciences Library. At the time of its closing, the Topaz Library with its approximately 4,000 volumes was the largest, most complete optometry library in the world and was the oldest departmental library at Ohio State.

Lionel Topaz was born in Russia May 15, 1875. He moved to England in 1897 and came to America 1903. He married in Boston in 1904 and had three children, Mae, Oscar, and Martin. Topaz established “The Optometric Weekly” in 1910 and founded The Professional Press, Inc. in 1919. He was the publisher of numerous books in the field of visual optics and a close friend of Charles Sheard, first director of the OSU Applied Optics program and for whom Ohio State’s Sheard Foundation for Research in Vision is named. Topaz died in Chicago, Illinois on July 23, 1942.

The oldest book from this library collection is a 1704 edition of Opticks by Sir Issac Newton that is part of the Medical Heritage Center rare book collection and can viewed during their open hours or by appointment.

The Medical Heritage Center also has an archival collection from the Topaz Library and the finding aid for it can be viewed at: https://hsl.osu.edu/mhc/pdf/lionel-topaz-memorial-library-visual-science-collection