In Princeton, you’ll find an Einstein museum. It’s just past the socks
It was a clue on “Jeopardy”; “Oddly, the only U.S. museum devoted to this physicist is tucked inside a woolens shop in Princeton, New Jersey.”
And if you said “Who is Einstein?” congratulations, you would’ve won the $200 box on the December 26 edition of the show.
“It’s really kind of crazy that we house the only Einstein is exhibit in America,” noted Henry Landau, the thirdgeneration owner of Landau’s on Nassau Street.
He’s right. It is kind of crazy. I mean, it’s Einstein. Einstein! And if you want to go to a museum to learn about the man, to see a few of his personal items, to see pictures you won’t find anywhere else, you need to walk past the luxurious sweaters and the Pima socks of this 101-year-old business.
“We did it as a lark back when they shot ‘I.Q.’ in town,” Landau told me. “We started with one picture, and that’s this one right here. That’s my brother’s motherin-law sitting two seats away from Einstein. Her husband was a physicist.”
So they had this family picture. They put it up in their lobby of their store (they’ve since moved down the street). They asked locals for anything Einstein-related to put behind the glass.
“We filled the lobby,” Landau said. “I think it was 24 feet by 8. Just tons of stuff.”
Most of it eventually went back home with the original owners, but Landau was given a few items, like Einstein’s sailboat seat and a book featuring his signature.
A few years passed, Landau’s moved, they “have this corner over here,” and so … Einstein museum, writ small. Tons of photos, with stories to go with each. If you’re at all interested in Einstein and looking for something more than a Wikipedia glance, it’s certainly worth the time to stop in.
And again, remember: This is the only Einstein exhibit in America. Period, full stop.
“We talked to the library, there was talk of building a room for this stuff, they never did,” Landau said. “Einstein never taught at Princeton, so they don’t want it. And the Institute for Advanced Study, I’m sure, doesn’t want people traipsing around. So here it is.”
Thousands of people from all over the world have come into Landau’s specifically for the Einstein display, and the stacks of guestbooks Landau keeps has the proof. From Lawrenceville to Lichtenstein, Ewing to England, Hopewell to Hungary … well, you get the idea.
If you’re into Einstein, and you’re in America, this is the only place to get your fix.
Of course, in a few weeks, Princeton goes Einstein crazy in honor of Pi Day. (Quick word on Pi Day: Celebrated on March 14 — 3.14, get it? — and cosmically intertwined with Einstein {it’s his birthday} the Princeton celebration — as designed by its founder, Mimi Omiecinski of the Princeton Tour Company —— is bonkers. This year, because calendars and all, the big festivities will be held on Saturday, March 10. Do yourself a favor and check it out at PiDayPrinceton.com. Anyway …)
Anyway, Einstein. Brilliant mind, local character, memorialized in a woolens shop. Somehow, it makes perfect sense.