Albert Einstein’s First Signed Photo
Signed Photographs of Albert Einstein that were taken before he became famous are extremely rare. The first image of Einstein shown in Einstein: The Man and His Mind (page 16) is the earliest known signed Einstein photo. We believe it was taken when he was seventeen years old to commemorate his graduation from the cantonal school of Aarau, Switzerland.
Einstein’s year in Aarau was one of the happiest years of his life. At this school independent thought was encouraged, in sharp contrast to the authoritarian education he received in Germany, which he had hated. Einstein later recalled, “In Aarau I made my first rather childish experiments in thinking that had a direct bearing on the Special Theory. . . . If a person could run after a light wave with the same speed as light, you would have a wave arrangement which could be completely independent of time. Of course, such a thing is impossible.”
The year 1896 was memorable for Einstein in other ways as well. While boarding with the Winteler family, he fell in love for the first time with eighteen-year-old Marie Winteler. And, to avoid mandatory German military service, which he detested, Einstein renounced his German citizenship (for the first time; he would renounce it for the second time in 1933). He was stateless for the next five years, finally becoming a Swiss citizen in 1901.
This photograph, a formal studio portrait in the carte-de-visite style, printed on card stock, was designed for presentation. Einstein gave it to his lifelong friend Albert Karr-Karusi and inscribed the back (in German): “To my dear Albert / Your Albert.”
It was a memento of their friendship, given in the spirit of today’s high school students who sign each other’s yearbooks.
Upon graduating with high marks from the Aarau secondary school, Einstein was admitted to the Polytechnic Institute of Zurich, where he embarked on his scientific education in earnest—and a most extraordinary life.
UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER,
Aarau, Switzerland, ca. 1896. Signed and inscribed
by Einstein to Albert Karr-Karusi: “Meinem l[ieben]
Albert / Dein Albert” (“To my dear Albert / Your Albert”).
Note: The images printed in Einstein: The Man and His Mind are exact copies of the original photos. The images are printed on photographic quality paper that is spot varnished. This technique reproduces the originals as accurately as possible. The exceptional quality control adhered to by the publisher is an essential feature of the book. It permits the reader to share the experience as if viewing the actual photograph in this private collection.
An early review of Einstein: The Man and His Mind was published in the UK where the book became available before its release in the US. In his his Popscience Book Blog, reviewer Brian Clegg states:
“Sometimes a book gets labelled a coffee table book as an insult, suggesting it’s thin on content if visually attractive. Gary Berger and Michael DiRuggerio’s photographic exploration of Einstein is a indubitably a coffee table book, but in its highest form. It’s huge (34 x 26 cm) and contains a collection of beautiful imagery.”
“This is a remarkable book. I’ve given it four stars because I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
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Learn more about Einstein: The Man And His Mind.
