Albert Einstein Memorial

• 1. Introduction

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  The Albert Einstein Memorial stands at the southwest corner of the National Academy of Sciences grounds, at 2101 Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. It is not a solemn upright monument. Einstein sits in casual repose, as if he simply settled onto a bench between thoughts, manuscript papers resting in one hand. Visitors who step up and stand at the center of the circular dais beneath his gaze report something unsettling: the figure makes direct eye contact. And any words spoken aloud are notably amplified, bouncing back at the speaker as though the bronze figure were listening.

  This is not an accident. Every element of the Albert Einstein Memorial, from the 4-ton figure cast in New York to the more than 2,700 metal studs pressed into the granite floor, was designed with the precision of a scientific instrument. The questions worth asking are how a sculptor who once sat with Einstein in Princeton translated that encounter into a 12-foot monument, what the floor of the memorial actually encodes, and what the three equations engraved on those manuscript papers tell us about the man being remembered.

• 2. Robert Berks and the Princeton Sitting

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  Robert Berks already had a reputation for portrait busts and statues when he was commissioned for this work. His subjects included John F. Kennedy, whose likeness stands at the Kennedy Center, and Mary McLeod Bethune, commemorated in Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C. For the Einstein memorial, Berks had an unusual advantage: he had already met his subject.

  In 1953, Berks sculpted a bust of Einstein from life at Einstein's home in Princeton. That direct encounter gave Berks a firsthand sense of the physicist's bearing and presence, and it became the foundation for the 1979 monument. The figure weighs approximately 4 tons and stands 12 feet tall. It was cast at Modern Art Foundry in Astoria, Queens, New York. The bench on which Einstein sits is made of white granite from Mount Airy, North Carolina. To anchor a structure of this scale, engineers sank three caissons into bedrock, totaling 135 tons.

  The landscaping around the statue, the elm and holly grove that frames the space, was designed by landscape architect James A. Van Sweden. Berks later created two replicas of the 1979 monument. One sits in the academy garden of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The other is on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.

• 3. A Dedication and a Speech

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  the 22nd of April 1979 was the date the memorial was unveiled, at the National Academy of Sciences' annual meeting. The occasion marked the centennial of Einstein's birth. Physicist John Archibald Wheeler spoke at the dedication ceremony, and his description of the statue was precise. He called it "a monument to the man who united space and time into space-time," and "a remembrance of the man who taught us that the universe does not go on from everlasting to everlasting, but begins with a bang."

  Einstein's own connection to the Academy stretched back decades. He was elected a foreign associate in 1922, the year after he received the Nobel Prize in physics. He became a full member in 1942, two years after becoming a naturalized American citizen. The site near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial places the monument within a landscape dense with national commemoration, though the casual seated pose sets it apart from the martial upright figures common to that part of the city.

• 4. The Star Map Underfoot

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  The circular dais surrounding the statue measures 28 feet in diameter. It is made from emerald-pearl granite sourced from Larvik, Norway. Pressed into its surface are more than 2,700 metal studs, each representing the position of an astronomical object at noon on the exact date the memorial was dedicated: the 22nd of April 1979.

  The objects charted include the sun, moon, planets, 4 asteroids, 5 galaxies, 10 quasars, and a large number of individual stars. Different stud sizes denote apparent magnitude, the relative brightness an observer on Earth would perceive. Distinct stud shapes pick out binary stars, spectroscopic binaries, pulsars, globular clusters, open clusters, and quasars. The positions were calculated and verified by astronomers at the U.S. Naval Observatory. Familiar constellations are marked on the map to help visitors orient themselves within the larger field of objects.

• 5. Equations and Quotations

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  Engraved on the manuscript papers held in the statue's left hand are three equations. They represent the general theory of relativity, the photoelectric effect, and the equivalence of energy and matter. These three advances span physics across scales, from the behavior of light to the structure of the cosmos.

  Behind the figure, along the back of the bench, three quotations from Einstein are inscribed. They were selected to reflect distinct dimensions of the scientist's worldview: his sense of wonder, his scientific integrity, and his concern for social justice. One reads: "As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law prevail." A second captures his feeling before the natural world: "Joy and amazement at the beauty and grandeur of this world of which man can just form a faint notion." The third frames knowledge as an ethical obligation: "The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true." That last inscription points toward why a scientific institution, rather than a national government, chose to build this monument.

• 6. Popular Life of the Memorial

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  The memorial has drawn unexpected attention beyond the tourist photographs that make it a popular stop on visits to the National Mall. During Sesame Street's 20th season, the statue was filmed and used in the show's opening title sequence, bringing the image of a seated, approachable Einstein into millions of American homes.

  In July 2012, the Polish-born artist Olek yarn bombed the sculpture, enclosing the entire figure in a colorful crocheted wrap of pinks, purples, and teal. The action brought the memorial into conversations about public art and temporary intervention. On a different register entirely, a replica of the memorial was once constructed from dark and white chocolate and placed on display at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. The bronze original, meanwhile, continues to draw visitors who sit beside Einstein on his granite bench, a position that places them directly within the acoustic effect the space was built to create.