Three hitherto unknown letters from Albert Einstein to Dutch physicist and Nobel laureate Heike Kamerlingh Onnes have surfaced in the archives of the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave in Leiden, the museum has said.

The letters date from 1911 and were written after Einstein’s first meeting with Kamerlingh Onnes, who was conducting experiments at his lab in Leiden which would lead to his discovery of superconductivity.

In his letters, Einstein suggested Kamerlingh Onnes could benefit from experiments he was conducting to prove his quantum theory, which Kamerlingh Onnes declined, and, the museum writes, might have delayed his discovery.

“Einstein was stuck in his particular frames of reference,” natural sciences professor Ad Maas said. “He did not at the time understand how revolutionary the work of Kamerlingh Onnes was. That makes the letters even more intriguing. They are offering an insight into the power as well as the focus of Einstein’s thinking,” he said.

The letters also show the dynamics between Einstein and his colleagues in Leiden. Einstein regarded physicist Hendrik Lorentz as an intellectual mentor while his relationship with Kamerlingh Onnes was “much cooler but one of mutual respect and a shared passion for scientific research”, Maas said.

The letters show the importance of archival investigation and form a valuable addition to the 40 letters from Einstein already in the museum’s collection. “We are getting an unfiltered peep into the creative but also singleminded brain of one of the greatest scientists that ever lived,” director of the museum Amito Haarhuis said.

The letters will feature in an exhibition about the relationship between Einstein and his Nobel laureate contemporaries called Prijzenkast (trophy case).