GUEST: In 1946, Lincoln University-- which
is a small black university in Pennsylvania--
was awarding Dr. Einstein an honorary degree.
APPRAISER: Yes.
GUEST: And my husband was a freelance photographer
who got the job to shoot the photographs.
APPRAISER: Uh-huh.
GUEST: And so the first is the shot of Einstein
coming down toward the ceremony.
He had been having stomach problems, and they
were feeding him baby food.
APPRAISER: Yes, yes, he had an aneurism, and
it was also the cause of his death.
This particular example is nice because it's
been signed.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: "To Arnold Cain, Albert Einstein,
1946."
GUEST: Einstein's daughter requested that
she would like a copy.
APPRAISER: Your husband sent at least one
or two copies.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: One to the daughter, and then Einstein
himself signed a copy to send back to your
husband.
GUEST: Yeah, and Einstein's daughter sent
it back.
APPRAISER: Well, it's a really fascinating
group.
Obviously, we occasionally see photographs
signed by Einstein.
But the circumstances around this whole event
make it that much more special, I think.
As you mentioned, Lincoln University, one
of the first African American colleges in
the country.
Langston Hughes, Thurgood Marshall, Cab Calloway
were all students there.
And at this time in his life, Einstein was
reticent about doing any honorary doctorates
or any presentations at universities because
of his ill health.
But he accepted the offer from Horace Mann
Bond, who is in this picture.
Horace Mann Bond was a leader in the developing
civil rights movement.
And on this particular occasion, his six-year-old
son, Julian Bond, was at the session.
And apparently, Einstein had given him advice
that he should never remember anything that's
already written down.
And of course, Julian Bond ended up becoming
the head of the NAACP many, many years later.
So what I think is fascinating about the photograph,
above and beyond that it's an image your husband
took of a very special event, is it speaks
to Einstein's unrecognized-- until most recently--
interest in civil rights.
He obviously was a refugee from Europe himself
as a Jew who came over in 1933.
He could not return.
And he spoke eloquently at this event of his
concerns for racism and his feeling that what
he called a "white man's disease" and that
he wanted to speak out.
When Marian Anderson, the singer, came to
Princeton, she was denied access to a local inn.
And reportedly, Einstein put her up for the
evening.
He also worked very closely with Paul Robeson,
who started the American crusade to end lynching
and was certainly very, very sensitive to
the problems of segregation that still existed
at places like Princeton.
Unfortunately, as I understand it, this particular
speech on this particular day, although it
might have gotten some local press, was not
widely reported.
And really, in some respects, your photographs
have brought this back to the attention of
others, and hopefully will be a subject of
further discussion.
GUEST: My husband said that his opening words
at the presentation was, "I do not need another
honorary degree.
I have other concerns."
APPRAISER: Uh-huh, did he go on to discuss
the atomic bomb?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Yeah, because obviously that was
forefront in his mind, it being just within
a year of those events.
Do you know what happened later in the day
when he was there?
GUEST: He went into the classroom and they
had all of the top students, and my husband
wrote down a little bit of what happened.
APPRAISER: So this was a piece of description
that went with the photograph your husband
took.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: And what we read here is, "In this
photo is Einstein's amused reaction to the
first question asked by one of the students,
which was, 'Professor, can you explain in
simple language your theory of relativity?'"
And then he went on to proceed to provide
an explanation.
This is also another extraordinarily rare
event for him to do an informal lecture on
relativity.
We don't see very many signed photographs
by Einstein and ones with this interesting
historical resonance.
I think that this particular example would
have an auction estimate of $6,000 to $8,000.
GUEST: Thank you.
APPRAISER: And the entire group, with the
additional photographs, would be $7,000 to
$9,000.
GUEST: That's wonderful.
APPRAISER: Well, thank you so much for bringing...
GUEST: Thank you.
APPRAISER: ...this very interesting window
into the life of Einstein at this particular
time of his life.
GUEST: Well, it's our prized possession.
