NEW YORK CITY – Hand-signed letters and manuscripts, and even the building blocks of legendary theoretical physicist Albert Einstein’s mind will be at the center of a flash exhibit to accompany a lecture titled The Nature of Genius: From Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci to Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs, on Saturday, October 7th at the New York Institute of Technology Theater on Broadway, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm Eastern time.

The event is being offered by One Day University, as part of a series of thought-provoking lectures by renowned historians, scholars and authors. More than 60,000 people have already participated in One Day University events. This lecture will be given by Professor Craig Wright of Yale University, based on his highly sought-after course, Exploring the Nature of Genius.

The original artifacts are provided by Seth Kaller, Inc., a leading historic document dealer and collection-builder. Mr. Kaller, owner and president explains, “Our display will add to an already excellent program a new dimension of intimate, physical contact with our past. Our documents and artifacts provide an authentic connection to the people, events and ideas that determine the course of history.”

It is interesting to consider to what extent his environment, right down to his toys, helped contribute to Einstein’s genius. On display will be Einstein’s own set of Anker-Steinbaukasten building blocks, which descended in his family until last year, when they were acquired by Kaller.

Original documents pertaining to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Thomas Jefferson will also be displayed. One Mozart item will be of particular interest, because of its rarity, high value and musical and historical significance. It’s a six-page complete musical manuscript, autographed by Mozart and titled La Bataille (K.535, a contredanse for orchestra). No place or date is provided, but what is known about Mozart’s remarkable life places the manuscript in Vienna, in Jan. 1788.

Craig Wright said of the piece, “Pound for pound, measure for measure, this brief, albeit complete, Mozart autograph is as historically interesting as any extant Mozart document. It tells us much about Mozart’s career and about the fate of the Holy Roman Empire in early 1788.” The manuscript, beautifully presented in a handsome in-binder, is valued at an estimated $1 million.

Einstein’s signed documents on display will include:

His handwritten letter counseling his son on the meaning of life and youth and the relative value of intellectual creations. “All my life I have troubled myself with problems and am always – as on the first day – inspired by the fact that cognition in the scientific and artistic sense is the best thing we possess,” Einstein wrote. “If one hears angels singing a couple of times during one’s life, one can give the world something and one is a particularly fortunate and blessed individual.”

A letter written eight months before Hiroshima, in which he warns that a “modern technological development” (clearly the still-secret atomic bomb) would lead to World War III. Einstein references a book that his friend, Dr. Isidore Held, had sent apparently opposing the creation of the United Nations. Einstein felt that new weapons would favor a first-strike pre-emptive war, and that international institutions were needed to prevent that. These thoughts and sentiments are just as timely today, in light of recent news events, as when Einstein first wrote them.

One Day University and Seth Kaller, Inc. have recently agreed to an exclusive partnership, with Kaller bringing powerful and extraordinary original historic documents to particular One Day University events. Their first joint exhibit, in September, was for Hamilton vs. Jefferson: The Rivalry That Shaped America.

A selection from Seth Kaller Inc.’s inventory can be seen on www.sethkaller.com. Kaller can be reached at (914) 289-1776; or, by e-mail to info@sethkaller.com.

Admission to The Nature of Genius: From Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci to Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs is $80. The New York Institute of Technology Theater is located at 1871 Broadway in New York City. For more information about the event, visit www.onedayu.com.

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