History of peer review

Peer review was not common in early 20th century. There is a famous story about Albert Einstein‘s letter complaining about peer review: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.2117822

Dear Sir,

We (Mr. Rosen and I) had sent you our manuscript for publication and had not authorized you to show it to specialists before it is printed. I see no reason to address the—in any case erroneous—comments of your anonymous expert. On the basis of this incident I prefer to publish the paper elsewhere.

Respectfully,

P.S. Mr. Rosen, who has left for the Soviet Union, has authorized me to represent him in this matter.