Please contact Find a Grave at support@findagrave.com if you need help resetting your password. -Groucho Marx====="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." Sort By. These famous US presidents had niche scientific interests that might surprise you. I feel a little bit nervous walking into the office at Rosedale Cemetery on a Friday afternoon in March. After Marie Curie and her husband discovered radium in 1898, it had been heralded as the new cure-all and was added to toothpaste, water, food, and cosmetics—with little regulation; sometimes it was enough just to say your product contained radium, which was costly to obtain. New Jersey, As one of more than a hundred—mostly women—workers at the factory, Mollie was encouraged to shape her fine brushes into a point with her mouth after dipping them into the luminous paint, to better render the fine details on the watch faces. I’m greeted immediately by two very friendly women, and their welcoming faces set me at ease. Illinois, Without exception, the “radium girls” were told the paint was safe to handle, and so virtually no precautions were taken while they handled and even ingested countless doses of radioactive poison. Please try again later. They were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark paint at the United States Radium factory in Orange, NJ, around 1917. The Radium Girls were so contaminated that if you stood over their graves today with a Geiger counter, the radiation levels would still cause the needles to jump more than 80 years later. But it’s not all doom and gloom for those of us who identify as the fairer sex. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to feedback@findagrave.com and include a link to the page and details about the problem. "Radium Girls is a shocking, heartbreaking story of corporate greed and denial, and the strength of the human spirit in face of it. Subscribe now to receive our weekly roundup of offbeat, exciting, and extraordinary road trip stories. Using A New Technology Getty Images Pierre and Marie Curie in 1905. I wanted to test that theory, which is how I ended up in the middle of a snow-covered, historic cemetery in New Jersey, waving a bright orange, handheld Geiger counter over the graves of Mollie Maggia and Quinta McDonald. × LaSalle County, New Jersey, USA, Chicago, Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. Alexandra is the managing editor of Roadtrippers Magazine. Those girls and women who died as a result of painting watch faces with radium paint, all the time being told it was safe. Cemetery Visibility: Public Private. This account has been disabled. By creating an account you agree with our, Southern Louisiana’s Courir de Mardi Gras is a colorful—and sometimes creepy—Cajun tradition, Remembering Jilwan: Local artists pay tribute to Anchorage’s ‘Flower Man’, Plumes, popes, and presidents: At the National Museum for Funeral History, nothing is certain except for death. The paints, sold under the brand name Undark, were used for numbers on the dials of military watches. 'The Radium Girls' became front page news across the country, a drama that riveted the public. LaSalle County, Four of the seven sisters worked at the U.S. Radium Corporation factory, located at the intersection of High and Alden Streets in Orange, New Jersey. We need your email address to send you trip itineraries and other updates. “It’s a shocking fact that even though dozens of young women had died from radium poisoning, it took a man to die before an autopsy was conducted to find out if radium might be killing the firm’s employees,” says Kate Moore. New Jersey, Your password must be at least 8 characters, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. In den Jahren nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg starben in den USA junge Frauen an einer merkwürdigen Krankheit: Sie verloren ihre Zähne und die Kieferknochen lösten sich auf. But then so does the radium. Passaic County, They were small-town girls from New Jersey who had been hired by a local factory to paint the clock faces of lum Nearly 100 years after Mollie’s death, women still face dangers in the workplace eerily similar to what the Radium Girls were up against. The terms of the settlement specified that they were each to be awarded $10,000, in addition to $600 per year for life. Although the glow would last far longer than anyone expected, the excitement of working with radium did not. Once Mary's body is exhumed and tested, her bones are found to be radioactive, strengthening the case against American Radium. "The voice on the other end said, 'Is this attorney Grossman?' When Mollie died in 1922, at just 24 years old, several causes of death were blamed, including ulcerative stomachitis and syphilis. Those girls and women who died as a result of painting watch faces with radium paint, all the time being told it was safe. The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with self-luminous paint. The Radium Girls of Ottawa, IL Undead America: Famous Graves and Historicaly Haunted Places Uncategorized May 28, 2018 4 Minutes In Ottawa, IL, you’ll find a statue of a young woman in 1920’s clothing. Advertisement Many facts and names have been altered. One day, 40 years ago, Grossman Jr. recalls getting a call out of the blue. Beside each girl sat a small dish of radium powder, which she mixed with a few drops of water and adhesive. Radium Girls is also rare in that very few American movies have been made about the early 20th century struggles of female (or male) workers. Each woman would receive $10,000⁠— equivalent to about $100,000 today⁠— and have all of their medical and legal expenses paid. With Joey King, Abby Quinn, Cara Seymour, Scott Shepherd. Going forward, protective measures were required when working with radium—a good thing, considering that the onset of WWII meant that the demand for luminous watches, and the women who painted them, skyrocketed. While I was able to locate Mollie and Quinta, when I inquired about Albina, I was told that Rosedale “used to have her, but doesn’t anymore.”. “Sure,” one of the women replies, grabbing a pen and a scrap of paper. New Jersey wasn’t the only place experiencing the devastating effects of radium exposure— another group of dial painters in Ottawa, Illinois, brought a similar lawsuit against the Radium Dial Company and won. It’s tempting to think that we’ve come a long way since Mollie Maggia’s jaw crumbled while the U.S. Radium Corporation profited from her efficiency as a worker—but it wasn’t until 1970 that Congress officially passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act and established the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA). “I’m looking for three specific graves, and I was hoping that you could help me find them?” I ask. “Radium Girls”: Based on a true story, women working in a factory using radium in the 1920s fall ill; their court battle would make history. In her right hand she holds a small paintbrush. Impossible to destroy, it has a half-life of 1,600 years. Please select a county or city to continue. In the 1920s a group of factory workers advocate for safer work conditions after some of their colleagues become ill from radium exposure. Let’s not talk about Michael Jackson. To read it is to honor these women who unwittingly sacrificed their lives but whose courage to stand up and be heard speaks to us from the grave. Exposure to chemicals has always affected men and women differently due to their body size and composition. We were unable to submit your feedback at this time. Amelia “Mollie” Maggia was born on December 21, 1897, smack dab in the middle of the Maggia sisters: Louise, Clara, and Albina were older; Quinta, Irma, and Josephine were younger. Latest. The Radium Girls were so contaminated that if you stood over their graves today with a Geiger counter, the radiation levels would still cause the needles to jump more than 80 years later.They were small-town girls from New Jersey who had been hired by a local factory to paint the clock faces of luminous watches, the latest new army gadget used by American soldiers. Found more than one record for entered Email, You need to confirm this account before you can sign in. They were small … | Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Morris County, Illinois, Both graves registered an average of 0.10 to 0.13 microsieverts per hour; real panic doesn’t begin until way past the 0.8 range, and readings of 1+ indicate a serious cancer risk with prolonged exposure. The Radium Girls. April 21, 2017. We’ve updated the security on the site. Diy. Representatives from the corporation along with doctors, lawyers, and members of the Maggia family watched as Mollie’s body was exhumed from beneath its headstone in section 8 of Rosedale Cemetery. After a lengthy and expensive legal process, including numerous appeals, the women finally settled their lawsuit in 1928. I’m tired of Michael Jackson even though I wrote this week about the issues confronting people who love Jackson’s music but, having left Neverland, can no longer deal. The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark paint at the United States Radium factory in Orange, New Jersey around 1917. Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. A system error has occurred. You need a Find a Grave account to add things to this site. Enter a valid email address and a feedback message. “[The Radium Girls’] experiences are a reminder that we need to listen to whistleblowers; and they themselves can inspire us to fight against injustice and attempts to silence truth, no matter what it takes,” says Moore. Because radium has a half-life of 1,600 years, I had heard that the girls’ remains were still so radioactive that a Geiger counter held above ground would register their elevated levels of radiation. The Radium Girls were a group of women who brought a suit against their employer, the United States Radium Corporation, in the 1920s. I tried several different positions, but I was never able to register even the slightest uptick in radiation—in fact, a few hours earlier I had tested the newly-purchased device on my cat (as one does) and she registered a slightly higher reading than I ever received at either grave. We have set your language to USA. The 19-year-old woman started working at the Radium Luminous Materials Corp. in Orange, NJ, in 1917, … The radium-infused paint was a new invention in 1917. The level of radiation some of the women endured is simply incredible. These victories, due in part to Mollie’s posthumous sacrifice, marked one of the first times in U.S. history that an employer was found negligent and required to pay settlements to its workers. Deleting this Virtual Cemetery cannot be undone. Kate Moore’s well-researched true story tells us of the lives of the “shining girls” condersided the luckiest girls alive to have found the most coveted jobs using the “wonder” substance radium to paint dials. Directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher, Ginny Mohler. Berry and the Radium Girls accepted their opponent’s offer reluctantly, despite learning that their mediator was a US Radium Corporation stockholder. I said, 'That was my father.' Excerpt: The Radium Girls. USA, East Hanover, During World War I, hundreds of young women went to work in clock factories, painting watch dials with luminous radium paint. The girls who glow in their graves. The U.S. Radium Corporation extracted and purified radium, a chemical element found in the alkaline earth metals section of the periodic table, and used the resulting product to manufacture phosphorescent paints. Totowa, By Kate Moore. Connect with us and hit up #keepexploring. Cook County, The women charged that dangerous working conditions in the Corporation's New Jersey factory had exposed them to harmful radiation, leading to sickness. It is a tale for our times." New Jersey, Please check your email and click on the link to activate your account. Plan your journey, find amazing places, and take fascinating detours with our app. Keep exploring with the Roadtrippers mobile apps. Essex County, By 1927, more than 50 other women had suffered similar fates—in addition to crumbling teeth, collapsed spines, foul breath, pregnancy complications, aching joints, unexplained weight loss, extreme exhaustion, and brutal hemorrhaging—all of which were eventually determined to be caused by the women’s repeated exposure to, and ingestion of, radium. Place the pin on the map to plot a location. The so-called "Radium Girls" were poisoned on the job, but they still fought for justice that saved many others aftwards. Historically, women’s pain and other medical issues haven’t been taken as seriously as men’s—they’re often labeled as hysterical or misdiagnosed and inadequately treated. Please try again later. "The radium girls' story is a kind of warning call from history that lest we forget, we will repeat the same mistakes." If you have questions, please contact support@findagrave.com. Her body, noted to be in “a good state of preservation” five years after her death, was taken to a nearby funeral home for an autopsy, which would show definitively that “each and every portion of tissue and bone tested gave evidence of radioactivity.”, My main purpose in visiting Rosedale was to pay my respects to Mollie and two of her sisters, Quinta and Albina, who also worked at the factory. “They must not have died in vain; we all owe it to them to keep making the world a better and safer place.”. Connecticut, Plese check the I'm not a robot checkbox.'. Radium Girls Photo References Posted on March 1, 2013 by admin For the past few weeks I’ve been working on a short comic about the “Radium Girls” of Ottawa, IL in the 1930s (not to be confused with the radium girls of Orange, NJ in the 1920s). There were similar factories in Illinois and Connecticutt. She likes things that are bigger or smaller than they should be: novelty architecture, miniature worlds, and anything made from fiberglass or neon. Photo Credit: Messynessychic. USA, La Salle, “Until that point, the women found their concerns were sidelined and belittled, their symptoms misdiagnosed—including for the STD syphilis, with all the social stigma involved in that—and the facts swept under the carpet and covered up. Red Headed Navy Nurse has not added any memorials to this virtual cemetery. To suggest a change to a cemetery page, visit the Cemetery Corrections forum. "Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" Exposure to chemicals has always affected men and women differently due to their body size and composition. They would intentionally paint parts of themselves so they glowed, or wear their best dresses to work in hopes that they would shimmer all night long. Mollie Maggia was exhumed in 1927, in the hopes that her bones would give still-living Radium Girls the evidence they needed to win in court. Chemicals commonly used in nail salons, for example—absorbed daily by primarily female employees—are known carcinogens and can cause birth complications, breathing problems, and skin irritation. But in the year prior, Mollie’s jaw had been removed after it began to break apart, she developed anemia, and her mouth would not stop bleeding. Their situation was too desperate to refuse; the women were not expected to live much longer. The outcry prompted the judge to pull the case forward but time was already running out and forced US Radium to offer a … Bessie tries to warn the other girls at the factory of the dangers and urges them to get tested for radium poisoning, but most are reluctant to quit or get tested. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. A visit to the graves of Mollie Maggia and her sisters is an important reminder of how far we still have to go. But just as the radium fad faded, other chemicals have entered into our daily lives without the proper long-term research studies to determine their potential to cause harm. The Radium Girls were so contaminated that if you stood over their graves with a Geiger counter TODAY, the radiation levels would cause the needles to jump, almost 100 years later. So, yes, I do think that their gender played a role in the shocking delay in recognizing this occupational poisoning—the facts completely support that.”, “I do think that their gender played a role in the shocking delay in recognizing this occupational poisoning.”. Marguerite Carlough Mar 1901 – 26 Dec 1926. For help using the website visit our help page or contact support@findagrave.com. They were enamored with the struggle of these young girls and quickly sided with them against US Radium. Radium Girls. She said, 'Well, I'm one of the descendants of Catherine Donohue and I just wanted to thank him.'" There is a problem with your email/password. The combination made a luminescent green paste called Undark, which they used to painstakingly paint the numbers on the faces of watches. There’s snow on the ground, but inside the tiny office it feels tropical. Radium was proven to be dangerous in 1901, but the women … Anything you plan or save automagically syncs with the apps, ready for you when you hit the road! To suggest a correction or addition, visit the memorial page and click Suggest Edits. The more these biases and unfair practices are exposed, by champions like the Radium Girls and others, the faster they will go away—hopefully faster than the radium still insidiously lurking within the remains of the dial painters. “Are they popular here?”. Amelia “Mollie” Maggia was the first to die. Early in the 20th century, women work at the U.S. Radium Factory, painting glow in the dark watches, unaware of the dangers of working with radium. The girls were called dial painters, and they were told to hold the brushes in the mouths for increased precision. Science. Nearly 100 years after Mollie’s death, women still face dangers in the workplace eerily similar to what the Radium Girls were up against.

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