Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany. He studied in Zurich, Switzerland, and in 1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss citizenship. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and immigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He became a United States citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945. He died on April 18, 1955, in Princeton.

This assembled collection consists of miscellaneous material by or about Einstein: correspondence, manuscripts and typescripts, photographs, drawings, articles and offprints, ephemera, newspaper clippings, and medical records. The material is chiefly in English, with a few items in German. Correspondents include Isaac Aschkenazy, Charles Bradford, Hermann Broch, Edward U. Condor, William Karraker, H. N. Russell, Lyman Spitzer, and William M. Whitney. Manuscripts include poems in German and in English, and an address delivered at Swarthmore College in June, 1938. There are photographs of Einstein with Mrs. Erich Von Kahler at the Kahler's house and of Einstein with Ghandi, Nehru, and others, and there are drawings of Einstein by Meinhard Jacoby, Arzell Thompson, Jr., and "J.C.T." There are also several photographs of Einstein taken by Roman Vishniac.