Antiques Roadshow

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.