John McAllister (1753–1830), optician and craftsman, was born in Glasgow and apprenticed there as a turner, spinning-wheel maker, carpenter, and joiner. He immigrated to America in 1775 and worked in New York City until 1781, when he moved to Philadelphia. During the decades that followed, McAllister specialized in the production of walking sticks, riding whips, and spectacles. TJ purchased glasses from him, both for himself and others, in 1800, 1804, 1806, and 1808. After partnering briefly with James Matthews, 1800–03, McAllister operated on his own until he brought his namesake son into the firm in 1811. John McAllister & Son remained in business until the elder McAllister’s death, when its name changed to John McAllister, Jr., & Company. The younger John McAllister (1786–1877), who had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1803, retired in 1836 and spent the rest of his life pursuing various historical and literary interests and amassing a thirty-thousand-volume personal library (Henry Simpson, The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians [1859], 731–3; Association of Centenary Firms and Corporations of the United States [1916], 71–2; Will J. Maxwell, comp., General Alumni Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania [1917], 25; MB description begins James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 1997, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series description ends , 2:1017, 1193; TJ to McAllister, 5 June 1804 [MHi]; McAllister to TJ, 25 Nov. 1808 [DLC]; Philadelphia Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser, 17 May 1803, 8 Apr. 1811, 20 May 1830; Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 Dec. 1877; Philadelphia North American, 19 Dec. 1877).