During the 1930s and early 1940s, the policies of the Nazi regime in Germany and other Fascist governments led thousands of Europeans to take refuge in the United States. Some were already internationally renowned scholars, others were beginning careers, others were still children. Objects associated with them have made their way into various collections at the National Museum of American History, including those in such technical areas as mathematics, the sciences, medicine, and engineering. This object group draws together such devices as a testimony to the achievements of those associated with them and a resource for present and future generations.
Most of the objects presented here were collected because of the intellectual importance of their makers and users. Einstein’s pipe, for example, is an iconic object because of its association with an eminent scientist. The IAS computer and a model of the UNIVAC I represent milestones in the history of computing. Hungarian-born emigree John von Neumann designed the IAS and mathematician Richard Courant administrated of an institution where a UNIVAC I was used. Materials associated with Jack Trammel, Heinz Joseph Gerber, Ralph Baer, Felix Bloch, Kurt Nassau, and Julius Sharat reflect their successful careers in industry and product design. Not only Bloch but Enrico Fermi, Emilio Segre, Otto Stern, and Victor Franz Hess were Nobel laureates whose work merited inclusion in a national collection. Cardiologist Bruno Kisch, Rudolph Schindler with his gastroscope, and Frank Gollan with the bubble oxygenator merited inclusion in a medical sciences collection. Noteworthy psychological tests were associated with Kurt Goldstein, Bruno Klopfer, and Charlotte Buhler. Catherine Stern devised new apparatus for teaching young students arithmetic. To be sure, there is Eva M. Lande, who came to the U.S. as a child with a treasured mathematical toy. Finally, a Holocaust survivor who came to the U.S. after World War II and went on to become an NMAH curator is represented by a device she donated to the collections.
The objects included are arranged in rough chronological order by the date they were made. When materials had many parts, only one is included. At the museum—but not in this group—are objects associated with emigres better known for literary accomplishments (suTch as Thomas Mann), as illustrators (such at Tibor Gergely), as chess set manufacturers (such as Carl Steinbrenner), and as immigrants (such as Camilla Gottlieb). I have also omitted those who left one part of Europe for another (such as the Bings, who went from Germany to England, and were associated with toy engine manufacture). The Smithsonian Institution Libraries and Archives also have rich collections relating to those discussed here. Finally, one should mark the name of Josef Dawson Mayer (1870-1940), a pharmacist, collector, and historian who committed suicide rather than turn himself into the Gestapo. A large part of his collection came to the Smithsonian via Squibb.