Badge, Albert Einstein, 1975-1985

Alternative Name(s): Button This badge belongs to a large collection of protest badges compiled by Nic Maclellan, Previously involved in student activism, his work entails research into human rights issues in the Pacific region. The bulk of his collection consisted of anti-nuclear badges.

There is a connection between Albert Einstein and the nuclear issue: even if he did not directly participate in the invention of the atomic bomb, he certainly facilitated its development. His famous 1905 equation E=mc2 and the idea that a large amount of energy could be released from a small amount of matter were applied in the atomic bomb. Einstein's direct contribution came from a letter he wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt urging that the bomb be built. Despite the fact that Einstein was a pacifist, he was concerned by the fact that in 1938 German scientists were working on splitting the uranium atom. His letter to Roosevelt started the Manhattan project, that led to the first American atomic bomb.

There isn't much precedent for using his picture as a protest, although it has recently appeared in anti-nuclear demonstrations in post-Fukushima Japan. These 2011 protests saw participants wave placards where his face was covered by a radiation symbol so there might be some anti-Einstein sentiment amongst activists. However, the donor recalls that this badge would have been worn in support of Einstein as a socialist and pacifist and not critically. A large badge with a picture of Albert Einstein on yellow ground. On the bottom of the picture is a small inscription in white. A pin is on the back.