Title:  Relativity for the Millions: 
        The Einstein Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History

Mike Shara
American Museum of Natural History 
  & Columbia University


Abstract:
 
He was daring, wildly ingenious, passionately curious. He saw a beam of 
light and imagined riding it; he looked up at the sky and envisioned 
that space-time was curved. Albert Einstein reinterpreted the inner 
workings of nature, the very essence of light, time, energy and gravity. 
His insights fundamentally changed the way we look at the universeand 
made him the most famous scientist of the 20th century.

We know Einstein as a visionary physicist, but he was also a passionate 
humanitarian and anti-war activist. Born a German Jew, Einstein truly 
considered himself a citizen of the world. His celebrity status enabled 
him to speak outon global issues from pacifism to racism, anti-Semitism 
to nuclear disarmament. "My life is a simple thing that would interest 
no one," he once claimed. But in fact, his letters, notebooks and 
manuscripts tell a dramatically different story. The originals are on 
display at the American Museum of Natural History until August 2003,
integrated with videos and interactives explaining relativity.

I'll describe the foray of a research astrophysicist into the world of 
curatorship and informal science education.....
and the Einstein treasures on public display for the first (and perhaps 
last) time ever.