Date of Award

Spring 2026

Language

English

Embargo Period

4-29-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of History

Program

History

First Advisor

David Hochfelder

Committee Members

David Hochfelder, Richard Fogarty, Kendra Smith-Howard

Keywords

Ethnic capital, Bausch & Lomb, Transnational technology, German-American identity, Military-industrial complex, Political economy, History of capitalism, American history, Carl Zeiss AG, Corporate development, Technological systems, National security, Immigration history, Industrialization, Family-controlled business, U.S. Navy procurement, World War I, World War II, Rochester (NY), Scientific instrumentation, Ophthalmic industry, Americanization, Technology transfer, Public-private collaboration

Subject Categories

United States History

Abstract

This dissertation examines the first century of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company, founded in Rochester, NY in 1853 by German immigrants John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb. It argues the firm’s success was driven by leveraging of management’s German ethnic identity as “ethnic capital” to access resources like financial liquidity, immigrant labor, and technical expertise. These resources allowed for the transformation of the firm from a small optical retail shop into a major manufacturer of advanced optical instruments. However, as later generations of the family Americanized, the ability of the firm to leverage ethnic capital eroded until breaking completely during the Second World War.

The dissertation follows the development of Bausch & Lomb across three parts corresponding to a generation of familial management. First, it explores the firm’s nineteenth-century origins, showing how immigrant networks sustained the company’s survival and early expansion. Second, it examines the early twentieth century, including the partnership and transnational technological pipeline with German manufacturer Carl Zeiss AG, which was broken by the First World War’s inversion of the utility of ethnic capital, and rebuilt in the uncertainty of the Interwar Period. Finally, the Americanized third generation, limited in their use of ethnic capital, chose to fully abandon ethnic capital as a means of navigating the geopolitical rupture of the Second World War.

By integrating the histories of capitalism, technology, and immigration, this work challenges traditional narratives in political economy that view family control and ethnic identity as obstacles to corporate modernization. Instead, it demonstrates that ethnic networks could function as a powerful form of capital that facilitated corporate growth, technological transfer, and integration into the emerging American military-industrial complex.

License

This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.

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