7.30.2008

This is Real: Albert Einstein Photo

Last weekend while at home I spotted this picture out on my parent's computer desk. Apparently it was a picture my Grandfather (McCaughrin) had snapped while a student (or grad?) at Ohio State. Below is an exchange between my father and uncle. Cool stuff.

Keith: Forget the writing on back - that appeared afterward but before I recovered the photograph. (Am I correct that Brooke's husband is Slovenian - so he can decipher the writing on back, but again it's more recent than - not related to - the photo.) It's still in its original frame. Since Scott has the only other copy, it may be priceless - especially now - half a century after Einstein's death. Scott might corroborate the photograph's approximate time, place and persons. To my recollection, the time = mid-1930s, the place = Columbus OH, the young man was an Ohio State University College of Engineering student with Dad (who graduated from that college in 1934). Einstein might've visited there the world-famous Robert Milikan - Dad's engineering professor - who first derived the weight of electrons (negatively charged sub-atomic particles) - a milestone in experimental nuclear physics. My recollection is that the photo has been in the family since its inception - long before fakery by today's photographic and computer-imaging. Carbon-dating can pin-point its age as well. I judge it to be authentic and would testify to that under oath, but recommend that you not display it prominently, lest it disappear again. Craig

>>> KEITH MCCAUGHRIN 7/24/2008 11:46 AM >>>
Craig,
I have Brooke coming in this w/e, and I wanted to explain the
infamous Einstein photograph. Can you jog your memory
on the people, etc. There is printing on the back, but I
wouldn't know the language. Much thanks.