In September 1982, Oglethorpe University alumna Nellie Jan Gaertner (A.B. class of 1934, M.A. , 1935) presented the manuscript “Uber die Bestatigung der allgemeinen Relativitatstheorie durch die Erfahrung( The Experimental Confirmation of the General Theory of Relativity”) by Albert Einstein to the Oglethorpe University Library in memory of her father, Herman Julius Gaertner (1866-1958). Dr. Gaertner was born in Klausthal, Germany and came to the United States in 1888. He graduated from Indiana University in 1892 and received graduate degrees from Ohio Northern University and Ohio Wesleyan University. He was on the faculty of Oglethorpe University for thirty-four years beginning in 1916, serving as Dean of the School of Education and Dean of the Summer Sessions, Director of Graduate Studies, Professor of German and Mathematics and psychology .

In 1917 Albert Einstein published his special and general theory of relativity, Uber die spezielle and di allgemein Relativitatstheorie. The third edition in 1918 was translated into English by the physicist Robert W. Lawson. Lawson request from Einstein a supplement to the ordinal text demonstrating observational proof of general relativity. Einstein wrote the supplement in the 1920s and it was published in English as an Appendix III to Relativity: The Special and General Relativity A Popular Exposition. The supplement was entitled “The Experimental Confirmation of the General Theory of Relativity.”

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Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955