By Anne Levin
Steve Hiltner has been fascinated by the life and work of Oswald Veblen since discovering the mathematician’s house in Herrontown Woods 18 years ago. Along with historian Cindy Srnka, Hiltner — a naturalist, writer, and musician who heads the Friends of Herrontown Woods — will present some new research about Veblen at Princeton Public Library on Thursday, September 4 at 7 p.m.
“How Oswald Veblen Quietly Created Einstein’s Princeton” explores Veblen as the unsung hero in shaping Princeton’s scientific and research community. The presentation is a prelude to a performance on September 7 at 3 p.m. of Einstein’s Begonia, a musical by composer Rebecca Pronsky and writer Alexis Roblan, also at the library. Both are co-presented by the library and the Friends of Herrontown Woods.
“I’ve read through a lot of biographies of Einstein, and some of them neglect Veblen altogether,” said Hiltner. “They really don’t give him credit for attracting Einstein to Princeton. It’s all about [Abraham] Flexner and the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). Flexner wrote an autobiography, and Veblen didn’t. So Flexner’s story penetrated.”
In fact, Hiltner said, Veblen had been setting the stage for Einstein’s arrival in Princeton since first coming here himself in 1905. In 1933, when Einstein was exiled from his home in Germany because of his Jewish faith, it was Veblen who was influential in getting the famed mathematician to settle in Princeton, where he was first at Princeton University and later at the IAS.
“It’s always kind of fun to see how Veblen flies under the radar,” Hiltner said. “He was always working behind the scenes, and didn’t seem too concerned for getting credit. But his story has been coming out over time. It’s gratifying to see.”
Hiltner cites a chapter on the Veblens in a book by George Dyson as a “guiding light” in his research. With Srnka, who leads walking tours for the Historical Society of Princeton and works as a museum educator, he discovered Veblen’s influence as a visionary. The building at the University of the old Fine Hall, now known as Jones Hall, was largely a result of Veblen’s ideas. The Department of Mathematics moved to a new Fine Hall in the 1960s; the original building houses the East Asian Studies Department].
“It’s where Einstein had his first office,” said Hiltner. “Tourists would come looking for it. There was this flyer that said it was designed by an architect but didn’t mention Veblen at all. We had to dig up the back story of how he designed pretty much every detail, including the windows that had math formulas in them. He had been to Europe and studied prominent universities. He was trying to figure out how to bring scholars together, so he designed Fine Hall to have a common room. He was thinking all these things through and incorporating all these ideas into his design.”
Old Fine Hall became the first home of the IAS, which was originally planned for Newark, Hiltner said. Veblen convinced those involved to bring it to Princeton instead.
“He was very persuasive in choosing the first five or six faculty members,” Hiltner said of Veblen. “He was the first; not Einstein, as most people think. He found homes for displaced scholars. All of these different initiatives came together, including the acquisition of the open space. That rural nature of Princeton, which Veblen did a lot of work to preserve, was one of the things that influenced Einstein to come to Princeton, rather than an urban setting like Harvard.”
Admission to the talk, which will include time for questions, is free. Visit princetonlibrary.org for more information.