These 18 Powerful Vintage Photos are Your Entertaining Dose for Today

David Rothman and Albert Einstein dressed for the beach at Horseshoe Cove in Nassau Point, 1939

Here’s a casual Albert Einstein all dressed for a day at the beach, posed on a rock with a contracting David Rothman all decked out in his work attire. This was taken at Horseshoe Cove in Nassau Point in the summer of 1939. Einstein was staying in his Long Island summer home which he rented so he could spend the summer playing his violin and sailing (even though he never learned to swim). As for those fancy shoes he’s wearing, those were $1.35 at Rothman’s department store and evidently caused some initial confusion.

Einstein’s thickly accented request for a pair of “sundahls”, which Rothman interpreted as “sundial”, the scientist was eventually able to get these white sandals on his feet. He later laughed off the whole episode, blaming “mine atrocious accent!”.

His glorified rowboat named the Tinef, which is supposedly Yiddish for junk. It was small, maybe about 15 feet (4.5 meters) or so, and very unprepossessing.