Ink signature, “Albert Einstein,” at the top of a 7.25 x 10 cover page for the Gimbels Stamp Department series ‘Intellectuals,’ with colorful 15 stamps affixed below, each dedicated to Luxembourg or a specific trade or profession, entitled above, “Luxemburg 1935, Issued in collaboration with the International Committee to Secure Employment for Refugee Professional Workers.” In fine condition, with neatly trimmed edges, and light fading to the signature.
The Gimbels Stamp Department issued their special ‘Intellectuals’ stamp series on May 1, 1935. According to the original press release: ‘The nominal value, of course, goes to the Luxemburg Government. The excess value goes to the International Committee, to aid its efforts to help the Refugee Professionals. The Committee is now helping thousands of these men and women, in all parts of the world regardless of their nationality, creed or political faith.’ The Intellectuals series was primarily issued to raise funds to assist Jewish professionals fleeing Germany and the rise of dictator Adolf Hitler.
Regarding the date of the autograph, in the biography Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson writes: ‘Now that [Einstein and his wife] had decided to stay in the United States, it made sense for Einstein to seek citizenship. When Einstein visited the White House, President Roosevelt had suggested that he should accept the offer of some congressmen to have a special bill passed on his behalf, but Einstein instead decided to go through the normal procedures. That meant leaving the country, so that he—and Elsa, Margot, and Helen Dukas—could come in not as visitors but as people seeking citizenship. So in May 1935 they all sailed on the Queen Mary to Bermuda for a few days to satisfy these formalities.’ As such, Gimbels managed to convince Einstein to sign a select number of cover pages not long after his return stateside from Bermuda.
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