Albert Einstein’s Mathematical Notes to Auction

A Nikola Tesla letter on wireless telegraphy, Marilyn Monroe signed presentation photo, and a Bruce Lee signed program from the 1967 International Karate Championships in California will all join Albert Einstein's notes when they go under the hammer in University Archives’ online Rare Autographs, Manuscripts, Books & Photographs auction on July 28.  

Albert Einstein’s one-page manuscript handwritten in German circa the 1940s regards his formulation of the United Field Theory. Translated in part, it reads: “I want to try to show that a truly natural choice for field equations exists…”. There are six additional Einstein lots in the auction, including autograph manuscripts, autograph letters signed and typed letters signed, with varied scientific content (estimate: $18,000-$24,000).

Tesla's one-page typed letter, signed and dated March 16, 1901, is addressed to fellow electrical engineer Robert Ten Eyck Lozier who had also worked for Thomas Edison. Tesla writes excitedly about his hopes for soon establishing wireless telegraphic communication with Europe after securing a $150,000 investment from J. Pierpont Morgan. By year’s end, Tesla had lost the wireless race to his Italian competitor, Guglielmo Marconi (estimate: $15,000-$20,000).

The Marilyn Monroe signed presentation photo comes from the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes era and was taken by 20th Century Fox head photographer Frank Powolny, one of Monroe’s favorite photographers. The glamorous and intimate portrait, black and white on semi-glossy paper, has an estimate of $10,000-$15,000.

The Bruce Lee and Van Williams (Lee’s co-star from the 1966-1967 Green Hornet television series) co-signed program from the 1967 International Karate Championships held in Long Beach, California in July 1967 was autographed by both men on the program’s Demonstrations page (estimate: $10,000-$15,000).

Other highlights include:

• a colorful Walt Disney signed Sante Fe & Disneyland Railroad and monorail pass issued to New York City transit authority director Sidney H. Bingham circa 1959, granting him free access to the railway for five years as an “honorary Vice-President” (estimate: $18,000-$25,000)
• a two-page autograph manuscript by Henry David Thoreau sourced from his personal writings and tipped into a limited manuscript edition of The Works of Henry David Thoreau. The handwritten draft of about 360 words dates from c.1850s (estimate: $10,000-$15,000)
• a rare Al Capone autograph endorsement incorporating his mugshot dating to around 1935 (estimate: $8,000-$12,000)|
• an Abraham Lincoln signed military appointment dated the day after his beloved 11-year-old son Willie died of typhoid fever on February 20, 1862 at the White House (estimate: $7,500-$10,000)
• from Jimmy Carter’s personal collection, a photograph of Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush, signed by all five former US Presidents in 1991 upon the occasion of the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum (estimate: $6,000-$8,000)
• a John F. Kennedy autograph manuscript which the president-elect composed on an airplane traveling from Palm Beach, Florida to New York City, circa January 4, 1961, showing JFK’s pencil-written notes on the front and back of a Western Union Press telegram sent to him by White House correspondent Merriman Smith. Ideas from the draft – acknowledging the legacy of former U.S. presidents, and outlining what he wanted his administration to symbolize – were integrated into his nine-page presidential inauguration speech draft of just a few weeks later (ewstimate: $4,000-$6,000)
• a group of 15 Yousuf Karsh signed photographs, large and in full color, featuring Jimmy Stewart, Charlton Heston, and Mickey Rooney (estimate: $5,000-$8,000)