Bausch & Lomb, an American company based in Rochester, New York, is one of the world's leading suppliers of eye health products, such as contact lenses and lens care products today. In addition to this main activity, in recent years the area of medical technology (medicines, implants for eye diseases) has been developed. Bausch & Lomb became well known because of its popular Ray-Ban brand of sunglasses, which was sold in 1999 to the Italian Luxottica Group. Today, the company employs about 13,000 people in 36 countries. The company was founded in 1853 by two Germans, John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb.

Bausch & Lomb was founded in 1853 by two German immigrants, John Jacob Bausch and Henry C. Lomb in Rochester, New York. A trained optician, Bausch found in Lomb the financier and partner he needed for a small but ambitious workshop producing monocles. In 1861, the company manufactured Vulcanite rubber eyeglass frames and other precision vision products.

During the American Civil War, the blockade caused the price of gold and European horn to rise dramatically. This resulted in a growing demand for the Bausch & Lomb spectacles made from Vulcanite.