This 1933 set of telescope lenses consists of 3 glass lens halves and is a reproduction of the lenses used in a telescope built by sixteenth century Italian inventor and physicist Evangelista Torricelli, who studied under astronomer Galileo Galilei. In addition to his contributions in mathematics, Torricelli showed that air in the atmosphere exerts variable force through an experiment which led to his invention of the barometer, an instrument used to measure changes in air pressure. Torricelli was also actively involved in the field of optics, the study of light. In addition to experimenting with telescopes and microscopes, he was famous for the quality of his telescopic lenses. Although he maintained a level of secrecy surrounding his process when making his lenses, Torricelli used refined techniques to create perfectly spherical surfaces. He also believed in selecting high quality glass, which he was careful not to modify with fire or resin. Today, the only remaining original Torricelli lenses are kept in the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Naples and the Museo Galileo in Florence.

These lenses were created by the Italian government, at the time under Mussolini’s fascist rule, as part of an exhibition in the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair to showcase and promote Italian scientific achievement. The Italian exhibition was headed by physicist Guglielmo Marconi, who commissioned the Museum of Natural History in Florence, now the Galileo Museum, to create four sets of replicas on Mussolini’s behalf to be sent to the Chicago World’s Fair, the Science Museum in Munich, the Museum of Science in London, and the Center for National Research in Rome. The regime also ordered the construction of a huge pavilion on the Chicago fairgrounds, where these lenses, alongside over 1,000 other models and documents, would be stored and displayed. Among others, these instruments included Galileo's telescopes, Volta’s battery, and Torricelli's barometer. After the exposition closed in 1934, the Italian government donated some of its objects to the Museum of Science and Industry.