Einstein's Brain

Einstein's brain


I'd heard many times in the past that Albert Einstein's brain was discovered in a beer cooler in Wichita sometime in the 70's... was thinking about it earlier today and decided to google it.

The story is partially true, though not quite as I had pictured it, as I'd imagined a shocked bartender plucking a brain filled gallon sized jar out of the bottom of a beer cooler! In fact, the true story is even more bizzare.

From the website of Stephen Levy, the journalist who is responsible for the re-discovery of the whereabouts of the brain:

I came to the conclusion that the brain, in sectioned form, was still in the possession of the pathologist who removed it from the Einstein head, Dr. Thomas Harvey. I tracked him down in Wichita, Kansas. At first he didn’t want to tell me anything, but after a while he finally admitted that he had the brain. After a longer while, he sheepishly told me it was IN THE VERY OFFICE WE WERE SITTING IN. He walked to a box labeled “Costa Cider” and pulled out two big Mason jars. In those were the remains of the brain that changed the world.



Dr. Thomas Harvey


Dr. Harvey assumed the brain would be studied, so after removing it from Einstein's body he preserved it and took it home with him. He sliced it into 240 sections and gave a few pieces to fellow scientists, but kept most of it for himself. It then remained in a cardboard box in his office for 22 years.

Even after the discovery in 1978, Dr Harvey maintained possession of the organ, keeping it in a tupperware container and stashing it on the car seat beside him when he moved or went on long trips. In 1998 he finally decided to give the brain to the man who held his former job as pathologist at Princeton Hospital.

You can read more details of this fascinating story here beginning on page 545:

Einstein: His Life and Universe