Thomas Harvey

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Thomas Stoltz Harvey (born October 10, 1912 in Louisville , Kentucky , † April 5, 2007 in Titusville , New Jersey ) was an American pathologist and neurologist , who became known for stealing the brain and eyes from the late Albert Einstein in 1955 .

Life

Against the will of Albert Einstein, who wanted to be cremated immediately on the day of his death and to have his ashes scattered in an unknown location, Harvey removed Einstein's brain and eyes in the presence of Einstein's friend Otto Nathan at Princeton Hospital in New Jersey. With that, however, his own life went upside down. He lost his license to practice medicine and made a living as a factory worker. Harvey moved from one place to another, always with Albert Einstein's brain in his luggage, and ended up in Wichita , where he was visited in 1978 by Steven Levy , who wanted to find out where the brain was. It wasn't until 40 years after he stole the brain that he decided to take it back to the crime scene from where he'd taken it. The organ was stored in two mason jars, the way Harvey preserved the dissected and cubed brain back then. Harvey made the brain available to various scientists for examination and in 1997 decided to give it to Einstein's granddaughter, but she refused. He was accompanied by the reporter Michael Paterniti, who wrote a book about it. Most of the brain is now preserved in the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Chicago , the eyes in New York City .

As of 1996, Thomas Harvey was retired and lived in New Jersey.

literature

  • Michael Paterniti: Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain. Dial Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-385-33300-5 .
  • Carolyn Abraham: Possessing Genius: The Bizarre Odyssey of Einstein's Brain. St Martins Press, New York 2002, ISBN 0-312-28117-X .
  • Christina Berndt : Einstein's chicken soup . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1999, pp. 197-198 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Einstein's brain in a pot . In: Der Spiegel . No.  34 , 2000, pp. 189 ( online ). Quote: "Paterniti offered himself as a chauffeur and has now published the report 'Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain' (Dial Press [...]) about the bizarre eleven-day drive."
  2. ↑ Stolen, dismantled, distributed. The odyssey of Einstein's brain . n-tv.de, April 18, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Harvey, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harvey, Thomas Stoltz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pathologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Louisville , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 2007
Place of death Titusville , New Jersey