History of Mirrors Timeline

In the late sixth-century Chinese folktale The Broken Mirror Restored, lovers separated by war break a mirror in two so they can identify one another by matching the halves.

From the late fourteenth century, mirrors were incorporated into special pilgrim badges or pewter and lead mirror boxes, giving reflective objects a religious and devotional use.

In the fifteenth century, mirror imagery was increasingly shown with virtues and vices. These moralizing metaphors encouraged viewers to examine themselves according to their virtuous or vicious lives.

In the late seventeenth century, the Countess de Fiesque was reportedly willing to trade an entire wheat farm for a mirror, considering the exchange a bargain and illustrating the extraordinary value of mirrors.

In the fairy tale Snow White, collected by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, the evil queen famously asks her mirror, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall...”

Image source: Snow White

Sir David Brewster invented the kaleidoscope in Scotland around 1815. The device used mirrors to create changing symmetrical patterns for personal entertainment.

Image source: Kaleidoscope

Alfred Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shalott, published in 1833 and revised in 1842, gives its cursed protagonist a mirror through which she observes the people of Camelot without seeing them directly.

Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, published in 1871, became one of literature’s best-known explorations of mirrors and mirrored worlds.

In Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, a portrait functions as a magical mirror reflecting the protagonist’s true visage and the effects of his sinful acts.

Image source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

M. C. Escher used a spherical mirror in Hand with Reflecting Sphere, also known as Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror, created in 1935 to show a broad view of his surroundings.

Jorge Luis Borges’s 1940 short story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius begins with the conjunction of a mirror and an encyclopedia and develops further references to mirrors.

The 1947 film noir Lady in the Lake was shot from the protagonist’s point of view. He is seen only when a mirror appears in the shot.

The Harry Potter series, published from 1997 to 2011, includes magical objects such as the Mirror of Erised and two-way mirrors.

Image source: Harry Potter

The Dungeons & Dragons Manual of the Planes, published in 2000, includes the Plane of Mirrors under its appendix on variant planes and cosmologies.

Martin Seay’s 2016 novel The Mirror Thief includes a fictional account of industrial espionage surrounding mirror manufacturing in sixteenth-century Venice.

The Caliphate mathematician Ibn Sahl described parabolic mirrors in the tenth century, contributing to the mathematical and optical study of curved reflective surfaces.

Isaac Newton’s reflecting telescope of 1668 used a speculum metal mirror, demonstrating the alloy’s importance in astronomical instruments.

Image source: Newtonian telescope

Up until the mid-nineteenth century, many astronomical telescopes used speculum metal mirrors. The material’s long role in astronomy ended as newer mirror technologies became practical.

Australia’s Great Melbourne Telescope, installed in 1869, used a speculum metal mirror and represented the continuing use of the alloy in large astronomical telescopes.

The Campbell Center in Dallas, which opened in 1972, is an early example of architecture using extensive reflective surfaces.

Boston’s John Hancock Tower, completed in 1976, is another early example of a building whose design prominently uses large reflective surfaces.

In 2006, a €100,000 computer-controlled mirror measuring 8 by 5 meters was installed to reflect sunlight into the town piazza.

In early 2007, the similarly situated Swiss village of Bondo was considering applying the solution of using a large mirror to reflect sunlight into its town center.

In 2010, sunlight reflected from the Vdara’s south-facing tower in Las Vegas was reported to singe swimmers and melt plastic cups and shopping bags. Hotel employees called the phenomenon the “Vdara death ray” or “fryscraper.”

In 2013, sunlight reflected from 20 Fenchurch Street in London melted parts of a nearby Jaguar and scorched or ignited carpet in a nearby barber shop.

In 2013, mirrors were installed to reflect sunlight into the town square of Rjukan, Norway, bringing direct sunlight to a settlement surrounded by mountains.