My grandfather (born in 1889) was a clerk for the Boston& Maine Railroad company, in the years 1914-1922. We have a photograph of him, taken in the firm’s Worcester, MA offices-he is wearing a visor, and has a sleeve of dark material over his shirt sleeves. I understand that sleeve protectors were used to protect your white shirts from ink stains (fountain pens). anyway, I like the look-when did these go out of use?
Eyeshades were worn due to the glaring overhead gas jets. While whale oil and spirit lamps were used for homes (reading by them for prolonged periods was discouraged because it caused eyestrain) they were unsuitable for office work. Once electric desk lamps came in, the green shade came off the forehead and went on the lamp.
Sleeve protectors were used while tabulating long columns in huge ledger books. To keep the numbers straight it was best to see as far back in one glance as possible. Adding machines helped with that, so clerks now sat at flat desks, not at ledger tables with their forearms in contact with the sloping surface.