4 PHOTOGRAPHS SIGNED BY ALBERT EINSTEIN, TAKEN🐷 ABOARD THE S.S. KITANO🐟 MARU IN OCTOBER 1922, WITH 11 ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF EINSTEIN DURING THE VOYAGE ON WHICH EINSTEIN LEARNED HE WAS AWARDED THE NOBEL PRIZE

This album records in photographic detail Einstein's trip from Marseille to Japan aboard the S.S. Kitaꩲno Maru in the fall of 1922. All four signed Einstein photographs are dated October 1922, and it is reasonable to assume that all 15 photos of Einstein in this album date from that month.

In The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein: The Far East, Palestine & Spain, 1922-1923, historian Ze'ev Rosencrantz notes that, "Following the verification of his general theory of relativity, Einstein became an international celebrity overnight in November 1919." As perhaps the first celebrity scientist, Einstein's photograph and signature would have been highly sought after by the crew and his fellow passengers aboard the S.S. Kitano Maru. Indeed, although the original owner of this album is unknown, Japanese descriptions accompa𒁏nying some of the photographs indicate that it was one Misao Nakamura, seen wearing a ship captain's uniform in a number of the pho🌱tographs.

On November 14, 1922, upon the Kitano Maru's arrival at port in Shanghai𒊎, Einstein was notified that he had been awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. Interestingly, he makes no note of the award in his diary — perhaps because he had already suspected for months that he was the Nobel Committee's intended recipient. Surely, however, there must have been other passengers aboard the ship who were made aware of Einstein's momentous achievement and clamored for his time or attention.

A number of the photos are of Einstein and his secꦇond wife, Elsa. They married in 1919, at almost the exact time that Einstein became one of the most recognizable individuals on Earth. As a result, Elsa became something of Einstein's gatekeeper, a duty she fulfilled until her death in Princeton, N.J. in 1936, only a few years after they fled Nazi Germany and he had taken up a position at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Two photographs show Einstein with Viscount Kikujiro Ishii (1866-1945), the📖 Japanese ambassador to France and representative at the League of Nations. Einstein mentions speaking with Viscount Ishii in his diary on October 12, 1922, noting that he was "strongly Europeanized—down to the facial expressions...very cautious and realistic." Judging by another photo in which Elsa Einstein looks to be holding the hand of the daughter of a Japanese Consul, it is clear that the Einsteins were in the company of the upper echelons of Japanese society during their time on the S.S. Kitano Maru.

REFERENCES:

Rosenkranz, Ze’ev, ed. The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein: The Far East, Palestine & Spain, 1922-1923. Princeton, New Jersey: Pr🍒inceton University Press, 2018.