‘Einstein’ in The Apple

Museum of Natural History celebrates the life of Princeton’s most famous resident.

By: Michael Redmond
   The most famous resident of a town that has been home-away-from home to thousands of America’s most prominent citizens since 1696 is a man who was born in Germany, educated abroad, accepted American citizenship at age 61, was offered the presidency of another nation, and resided locally only at the end of his life.
   Although Princeton was one of the forges of the American Revolution, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) forged a new understanding of the universe. He revolutionized science at its most fundamental level, cosmology. His work ushered in developments that are as much today’s news as The Packet’s front page — the "theory of everything" (science’s holy grail, formally known as "the unified field theory"); atomic energy; computer technology, and the DNA bio-revolution, including nanotechnology.
   According to Michael M. Shara, curator-in-charge of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, "There were more changes in the last century than in the previous 2,000 years in terms of technological advances, such as nuclear energy, lasers, the computer revolution — and practically every one of those is traceable back to Einstein, including the biological revolution."
   Princeton is known worldwide for three institutions, only two of which are bricks-and-mortar: Princeton University, chartered in 1746; The Institute for Advanced Study, founded in 1930, and the institute’s most renowned fellow, Albert Einstein. Such is the level of popular interest in Einstein that the IAS has an FAQ item on Web site basically saying that no, the public cannot tour Einstein’s office (i.e., it is not a shrine) — it is in use by one of today’s faculty members.
   In November, to much fanfare, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City opened Einstein, an "unprecedented," "groundbreaking" exhibition on the man and his work which is attracting both international acclaim and, well, brisk box office. Einstein will be up at the AMNH until Aug. 10, whence it travels to the exhibition’s co-organizers, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (Einstein was among the university’s founders in 1925.)
   Princetonians can always stroll by Einstein’s former house at 112 Mercer St. or visit Lake Carnegie, where he indulged one of his passions — sailing. "I like sailing because it is the sport which demands the least energy," said Einstein, whose other great passion was chamber music, especially Mozart’s. Some town residents still remember spotting Einstein walking to and from his home and office.
   But for the whole story, then and now, whether you’re 80 or 8, the place to go is the AMNH. In addition to personal and scientific memorabilia never before exhibited to the American public, Einstein walks a canny line between hard and soft, serious and entertaining.
   Yes, entertaining. Visitors can view their images distorted by the gravity of a black hole (simulated, one hardly needs to add). There’s a short video, narrated by Alan Alda. There’s an interactive "blackboard" illustrating the most famous mathematical formula of all time, E=mc¯. There’s a kinetic light sculpture. There’s an interactive wall where visitors can see the mass of their bodies warping images on a screen, illustrating how massive objects warp space-time, i.e., gravity. And there are lectures, panel discussions, workshops and performances, too.
   More entertaining still, to some, is the Einstein Shop, which is hawking T-shirts, a brain-teasing trivia game, travel clocks, retro wrist watches, Mozart music boxes, and books, of course, including The Einstein Sampler (Johns Hopkins UP), the exhibition’s companion book, written by Ze’ev Rosenkranz, curator of the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
   Einstein is divided into 10 sections, each exploring a key facet of the subject’s life and work. As one would expect, the science is amply covered ("Light," "Time," "Energy" and "Gravity" are sections all to themselves), but Einstein, the private and the public man, are also spotlighted in "Life and Times," "Einstein in Peace and War" and "Global Citizen."
   We see a report card from Einstein’s high school (excellent grades in algebra and physics), his pipes, his magnetic compass, his 1921 Nobel Prize. Not only do we see some pages of an original 1912 manuscript, facsimiles of the 72 pages of the Special Theory of Relativity cover an entire wall. We see Einstein’s original letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt warning that the Nazis might be developing atomic weapons, side to side with FDR’s reply.
   We see Einstein speaking out for peace and for a Jewish state and denouncing segregation, anti-Semitism, McCarthyism, and nuclear armament. We see Einstein declining the presidency of Israel ("All my life I have dealt with objective matters, hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to exercise official functions.") The exhibition is capped by "Einstein’s Legacy," which relates directly to the physicist’s residence in Princeton.
   Einstein came here in 1933 to search for a solution to The Problem of Problems, yet unsolved: a single principle underlying all physical phenomena, from the immense (stars and bigger) to the infinitesimal (atoms and smaller). At the IAS he was seeking a ground of reconciliation between his own Theory of Relativity, which describes the vast picture, and Max Planck’s Quantum Theory, which describes the tiny picture. On display will be Einstein’s last writing pad — his final calculations.
   Somewhere in all of this, perhaps we may catch a glimpse of the man who impishly wrote, for a 1936 time capsule, "Dear Posterity, If you have not become more just, more peaceful, and generally more rational than we are (or were) — why then, the Devil take you. Having, with all respect, given utterance to this pious wish, I am (or was) Yours, Albert Einstein."
Timed tickets to "Einstein," which includes AMNH admission, are $17 for adults, $12.50 for students and senior citizens, and $10 for children. Tickets can be reserved by calling (212) 769-5200 or by visiting www.amnh.org. The AMNH is located at Central Park West and 79th Street, New York City.



"Einstein" is made possible through the support of Jack and Susan Rudin, the Skirball Foundation, and corporate tour sponsor TIAA-CREF, a financial services firm for professional educators.