Glowing in the Dark

The women of the United States Radium Corporation were misled and left to die by a system that viewed them as unimportant — but these women fought back.

Discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie, radium is an element that is extracted in trace amounts from uranium ore that, despite being radioactive, quickly became a sensation. America in particular adopted radium as a premium product of its day — a single gram could cost as much as $120,000 — and it became a plaything for the rich and powerful, selling in health-promoting tonics, make-up, and cleaning products. There were radium spas, radium milk, even radium underwear. All made from an element Pierre Curie once said he ‘would not care to trust himself in a room with a pure kilo [of it]… as it would burn all the skin off his body, destroy his eyesight and probably kill him.’

But its potential dangers didn’t interest Americans, they handled radium with a youthful naivety — charmed by that eerie glow. ‘I can feel the sparkles inside my anatomy,’ wrote one prescient enthusiast.

As the United States prepared to enter the war in Europe, a number of practical uses for radium emerged: it became important for interpreting compasses at night, seeing down gunsights, and, most pertinently, reading watch dials in…