Years before Andy Warhol imagined his idea of the mass-produced celebrity, Albert Einstein became a celebrity, partially by accident. People didn’t understand his generalized theory of relativity, but they understood he was a genius, and ultimately respected him for that.

According to Marshall Meisner, his initial American fame was accidental. When he arrived to the United States with a Zionist delegation in 1921, and throngs of people welcomed Chaim Weizmann (the future first president of Israel), the American press mistook it for crowds welcoming the Nobel Prize winner. It was partially only due to that confusion they interviewed him in the first place.

In a book review in 1934, it seems that Einstein himself noted that his fame was “accidental” and that he had “unearned popularity”. As the reviewer in the New York Times writes, “Nor is such humility an affection. No scientist, no artist, no writer can say, ‘Alone I did it.’ All are comrades in the crafts of the intellect.”

He was initially feared as “the other”, “the destroyer of space and time”, until he was humanized. Once they met him, they realized that he had a sense of humor and gave very quotable quotes. On April 5, 1921 an editorial in the New York Times mentioned how friendly and genial he was, unlike regular scientists, even referring to his new pipe on multiple occasions. “‘I will now treat the other pipes with contempt,’ he said, caressing it. 

In other articles, journalists spoke about his love of the violin. Evil people hellbent on destroying space and time apparently didn’t smoke exquisite pipes or play the violin.

To paraphrase the painting “The Treachery of Images” by René Magritte nearly a decade later, “ceci n’est pas une pipe”, this was not just a pipe. It was a new accoutrement of a celebrity, much like Sherlock Holmes’ hat or Spike Lee’s glasses. Both Magritte and Einstein questioned and expanded our perception of reality. A photo of or a story about Einstein with a pipe or a violin will change our perception of him, more rapidly than trying to understand his theory of relativity.

Already a celebrity, Einstein had a write-up in Vanity Fair in 1923.

In a 1934 New York Times column, it went further. “As a mathematician, Einstein may be a little difficult for some people to get on with. As a man, he is irresistible.”

By 1939 he was so recognizable that the New Yorker wrote a little anecdote about him in their Talk of the Town section: 

Einstein has been bothered a good deal when he comes to New York by people who stop him in the street and say “Aren’t you Professor Einstein?” The Professor finally got the old brain to work and figured out a doge. He says with great humility, and in broken English, “Pardon me, so sorry! Always I am mistaken for Professor Einstein.” People turn away without saying anything more, instead of asking him just that theory is really about, the way they used to.”

He was featured on the cover of TIME magazine five times, three times during his life, and on Newsweek three times, twice during his life. He was the voice of a naturalized citizen on a radio show at a time when the country was trying to promote inclusionism.

His use of celebrity wasn’t always innocuous, to say the least. The Manhattan Project, which led to the atomic bomb, was a result of his signing a letter warning of the German’s research capabilities. After Einstein saw the utter destruction it caused and the hundreds of thousands of lives killed, he became a pacifist. The fears that people had in 1919 about him being a “destroyer of space and time” became a prescient reality.

He spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully trying to discover a unified field theory, in an attempt to disprove quantum mechanics. As he wrote in a letter to John Moffat a few years before he died, 

“Every individual . . . has to retain his way of thinking if he does not want to get lost in the maze of possibilities. However, nobody is sure of having taken the right road, me the least.” 

But then something happened.

More than a quarter century after he died, he became a symbol.

“Albert Einstein, the Human Side”, a book of his quotes came out in 1979, and throughout the next decade more and more of his writings and archives were printed. But more than just including quotes, the book humanized him, and showed the legend and friend of schoolchildren and “gently ironic philosopher”. The writer of book’s forward, Freeman Dyson wrote “the book shows him as he was—not a superhuman genius but a human genius, and all the greater for being human.”

This image of Einstein repeats itself more and more throughout the next few decades. Many children’s books were written with titles like “The Genius Who Failed School”, “Ordinary Genius”, “A Curious Mind”, and “I Am Curious”, as parents and teachers wanted to promote curiosity and imagination. This was the decade where a show like “Reading Rainbow” with LeVar Burton could become a success.

That led way to a television series called “Little Einsteins” and a whole brand called “Baby Einstein” focused on making your babies smarter with music and interactive toys and games.

By 1983 graphic t-shirts were huge in America, and many people were wearing Einstein’s face on their chest. Motivational posters became popular in America in the mid-80s and over the next decade, the price of poster printing came down, making Einstein a go-to poster for college dorm rooms.

Artists became creating colorful pop versions of his face, many referencing a famous photo where he stuck out his tongue at the photographer. Christopher Llyod’s character’s hairstyle in Back to the Future, Doc Brown, was designed to invoke Einstein’s unique profile. His dog’s name was also Einstein. The movie Young Einstein was a success. Songs quoted him. Popular culture embraced the E=MC², and his name became synonymous with genius. Even, the name of Mariah Carey’s 11th studio album celebrates the formula, but I think that she has different values for each of the variables.

TIME magazine called him the person of the century. Now posters with his quotes are sold in Staples and Walmart. He has entered into the pantheon of famous people frequently and extensively quoted (and misquoted) on the internet and elsewhere, along with William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Voltaire and Mark Twain. On the website BrainyQuote, he has 5 pages of results, where the writers William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Oscar Wilde each have six.

In 2017, the street artist Banksy created a huge mural of Einstein carrying a sign “Love is the answer” on a wall by the Highline in New York City. The image was subsequently reproduced on walls all around the world, and Mr. Brainwash incorporated it into his work titled ‘Love is the Answer”. Another street artist, Kobra, created a few more large murals of Einstein during a residency in New York in 2018.

Also in 2017, National Geographic used his life as the first season of the television series “Genius”, to be followed by seasons about Picasso and Aretha Franklin (upcoming).

His profile has become so recognizable the Noun Project has more than 20 icons representing Albert Einstein. More than either Marilyn Monroe or Barack Obama.

In a way, in his death Einstein has become the epitome of Warhol’s idea of the mass-produced celebrity. You can have your own personal Einstein to inspire you to be more curious, to be fascinated by the world around you, to imagine in another dimension, to create something previously thought impossible.