Einstein, Albert. (1879 - 1955) & St. John, Charles Edward. (1857 - 1935). Enormous Signed Photograph after visiting the Mount Wilson Observatory. Tremendous gelatin silver photograph by E. Willard Spurr, signed and dated Feb. 1931 by him in black ink lower left with his copyright notice, signed "Albert Einstein / Pasadena 1931" in blue ink and signed "Charles E. St. John" in black ink lower right. The print itself measures 14 x 17.5 inches (36 x 44 cm) and is one of the largest signed photographs of the Einstein ever offered for sale.
In the winter of 1931, Einstein was a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and this was signed during his six-week visit to the school. He was attracted by the research being done there, particularly at the Mount Wilson observatory - which housed the world's largest telescope at the time - and the theoretical processing of its astronomical discoveries. "The work of your wonderful observatory," Einstein said, had "led to a dynamic concept of the spatial structure of the universe, for which [Richard Chace] Tolman's work has provided an original and exceedingly clear theoretical expression." (Einstein, as quoted in Albrecht Folsing's Albert Einstein: A Biography, p. 638) During his time in Pasadena, Einstein attended various lectures in astronomy and astrophysics and himself delivered a lecture on his Unified Field Theory, which he had been working on since 1915. He would emigrate permanently to the United States in 1933.
The American astronomer, Charles E. St. John, joined the staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1908 and between 1909 and 1930, published 80 papers. His early work there principally involved his observation of sun spots, examining the Sun's element composition using spectroscopy. By the time of Einstein's arrival, he was spending most of his time working to confirm the theory of general relativity and he and Edwin P. Hubble had just recently discovered the red shift effect and concluded that the universe was expanding. Einstein's time with him at the Observatory is well documented in a number of photographs reproduced in Ze'ev Rosenkranz's "The Einstein Scrapbook," pages 130- 135.
Archivally matted under UV plexiglass in an attractive gold and black painted wood frame to an overall monumental size of 23 x 27 inches (59 x 69 cm). In very fine condition, it seems to have never been exposed to light, the signatures as crisp and clean as on the day they were signed. The photographer, Ervin Willard Spurr, was born in 1869 New York and grew up in Iowa, where he established his reputation as a photographer, before moving his studio to Pasadena. Our photograph was obtained from a private CA collector who acquired this directly from the estate of the photographer's son, Melbourne Irving Spurr (1888 - 1964). A smaller portrait of Einstein made at the same sitting as this one is in the Science Photo Library at the U.S. Library of Congress.
In the winter of 1931, Einstein was a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and this was signed during his six-week visit to the school. He was attracted by the research being done there, particularly at the Mount Wilson observatory - which housed the world's largest telescope at the time - and the theoretical processing of its astronomical discoveries. "The work of your wonderful observatory," Einstein said, had "led to a dynamic concept of the spatial structure of the universe, for which [Richard Chace] Tolman's work has provided an original and exceedingly clear theoretical expression." (Einstein, as quoted in Albrecht Folsing's Albert Einstein: A Biography, p. 638) During his time in Pasadena, Einstein attended various lectures in astronomy and astrophysics and himself delivered a lecture on his Unified Field Theory, which he had been working on since 1915. He would emigrate permanently to the United States in 1933.
The American astronomer, Charles E. St. John, joined the staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1908 and between 1909 and 1930, published 80 papers. His early work there principally involved his observation of sun spots, examining the Sun's element composition using spectroscopy. By the time of Einstein's arrival, he was spending most of his time working to confirm the theory of general relativity and he and Edwin P. Hubble had just recently discovered the red shift effect and concluded that the universe was expanding. Einstein's time with him at the Observatory is well documented in a number of photographs reproduced in Ze'ev Rosenkranz's "The Einstein Scrapbook," pages 130- 135.
Archivally matted under UV plexiglass in an attractive gold and black painted wood frame to an overall monumental size of 23 x 27 inches (59 x 69 cm). In very fine condition, it seems to have never been exposed to light, the signatures as crisp and clean as on the day they were signed. The photographer, Ervin Willard Spurr, was born in 1869 New York and grew up in Iowa, where he established his reputation as a photographer, before moving his studio to Pasadena. Our photograph was obtained from a private CA collector who acquired this directly from the estate of the photographer's son, Melbourne Irving Spurr (1888 - 1964). A smaller portrait of Einstein made at the same sitting as this one is in the Science Photo Library at the U.S. Library of Congress.
Einstein, Albert. (1879 - 1955) & St. John, Charles Edward. (1857 - 1935). Enormous Signed Photograph after visiting the Mount Wilson Observatory. Tremendous gelatin silver photograph by E. Willard Spurr, signed and dated Feb. 1931 by him in black ink lower left with his copyright notice, signed "Albert Einstein / Pasadena 1931" in blue ink and signed "Charles E. St. John" in black ink lower right. The print itself measures 14 x 17.5 inches (36 x 44 cm) and is one of the largest signed photographs of the Einstein ever offered for sale.
In the winter of 1931, Einstein was a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and this was signed during his six-week visit to the school. He was attracted by the research being done there, particularly at the Mount Wilson observatory - which housed the world's largest telescope at the time - and the theoretical processing of its astronomical discoveries. "The work of your wonderful observatory," Einstein said, had "led to a dynamic concept of the spatial structure of the universe, for which [Richard Chace] Tolman's work has provided an original and exceedingly clear theoretical expression." (Einstein, as quoted in Albrecht Folsing's Albert Einstein: A Biography, p. 638) During his time in Pasadena, Einstein attended various lectures in astronomy and astrophysics and himself delivered a lecture on his Unified Field Theory, which he had been working on since 1915. He would emigrate permanently to the United States in 1933.
The American astronomer, Charles E. St. John, joined the staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1908 and between 1909 and 1930, published 80 papers. His early work there principally involved his observation of sun spots, examining the Sun's element composition using spectroscopy. By the time of Einstein's arrival, he was spending most of his time working to confirm the theory of general relativity and he and Edwin P. Hubble had just recently discovered the red shift effect and concluded that the universe was expanding. Einstein's time with him at the Observatory is well documented in a number of photographs reproduced in Ze'ev Rosenkranz's "The Einstein Scrapbook," pages 130- 135.
Archivally matted under UV plexiglass in an attractive gold and black painted wood frame to an overall monumental size of 23 x 27 inches (59 x 69 cm). In very fine condition, it seems to have never been exposed to light, the signatures as crisp and clean as on the day they were signed. The photographer, Ervin Willard Spurr, was born in 1869 New York and grew up in Iowa, where he established his reputation as a photographer, before moving his studio to Pasadena. Our photograph was obtained from a private CA collector who acquired this directly from the estate of the photographer's son, Melbourne Irving Spurr (1888 - 1964). A smaller portrait of Einstein made at the same sitting as this one is in the Science Photo Library at the U.S. Library of Congress.
In the winter of 1931, Einstein was a visiting professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and this was signed during his six-week visit to the school. He was attracted by the research being done there, particularly at the Mount Wilson observatory - which housed the world's largest telescope at the time - and the theoretical processing of its astronomical discoveries. "The work of your wonderful observatory," Einstein said, had "led to a dynamic concept of the spatial structure of the universe, for which [Richard Chace] Tolman's work has provided an original and exceedingly clear theoretical expression." (Einstein, as quoted in Albrecht Folsing's Albert Einstein: A Biography, p. 638) During his time in Pasadena, Einstein attended various lectures in astronomy and astrophysics and himself delivered a lecture on his Unified Field Theory, which he had been working on since 1915. He would emigrate permanently to the United States in 1933.
The American astronomer, Charles E. St. John, joined the staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1908 and between 1909 and 1930, published 80 papers. His early work there principally involved his observation of sun spots, examining the Sun's element composition using spectroscopy. By the time of Einstein's arrival, he was spending most of his time working to confirm the theory of general relativity and he and Edwin P. Hubble had just recently discovered the red shift effect and concluded that the universe was expanding. Einstein's time with him at the Observatory is well documented in a number of photographs reproduced in Ze'ev Rosenkranz's "The Einstein Scrapbook," pages 130- 135.
Archivally matted under UV plexiglass in an attractive gold and black painted wood frame to an overall monumental size of 23 x 27 inches (59 x 69 cm). In very fine condition, it seems to have never been exposed to light, the signatures as crisp and clean as on the day they were signed. The photographer, Ervin Willard Spurr, was born in 1869 New York and grew up in Iowa, where he established his reputation as a photographer, before moving his studio to Pasadena. Our photograph was obtained from a private CA collector who acquired this directly from the estate of the photographer's son, Melbourne Irving Spurr (1888 - 1964). A smaller portrait of Einstein made at the same sitting as this one is in the Science Photo Library at the U.S. Library of Congress.