The Radium Girls

In the early 1900s, Marie Curie discovered radium, and it became an instant phenomenon. It was used as a treatment for cancer, baldness, and believed to make women more beautiful. The full of effects of radium were not yet clear. Madam Curie died of complications from anemia, caused by prolonged exposure to radium. But by the time she died in 1934, other women were dying from radium as well.

In 1917, a new trend emerged in the form of “glowing” watches. These watches had the numbers painted with glow-in-the-dark radium paint. This was painstaking work, and 4,000 employees, most of them women, were hired to paint the numbers on the faces for 1.5 cents per watch. While scientists were beginning to understand the effects of radium on the body, the women working in watch factories—who would become known as Radium Girls—still believed it to be a miracle cure-all.

The women were taught to paint the watch faces using a method called “lip pointing,” where they put the tip of their paintbrushes between their lips to sharpen the point. Repeated lip pointing led to lips and teeth coated in paint and radium seeping into their bodies. Many women, however, did not stop at lip pointing. Believing that the radium would make them healthier, they painted the glow-in-the-dark paint on their lips, teeth, eyelids, fingernails, and buttons. The radium then soaked into their bloodstreams, poisoning them.

Very quickly the Radium Girls started developing health problems. Their teeth began to rot because of the exposure from lip pointing. When the rotten teeth were removed, their jaws broke as well, weakened and brittle. The extraction sites did not heal but became infected, causing further health concerns. Other women developed bone cancer, anemia, and leukemia from exposure.

By 1927—within ten years of the radium watches being produced—more than fifty women died as a direct result of radium poisoning. In 1927, after contracting cancer, Grace Fryer, one of the Radium Girls, led a group of women in suing the factory owner of U.S. Radium Company. Their victory set a precedent for workers having rights in cases of occupation-related diseases. Eleven years later, Catherine Donahue also sued, taking the company she worked for to court. She was so sick by the time the trial was held that she had to be carried into the courtroom to testify. Donahue also won her case but died shortly after.

The Radium Girls are an example of exploitative labor and the power to fight it. Hundreds of these women died from radium related diseases over the years, and even after scientists decided radium was unsafe to ingest, factory owners continued to make the women paint the watch faces. These women died, but their legacy led to tighter regulations on worker safety and rights of the worker.

 

Works Cited

Grady, Denise. “A Glow in the Dark, and a Lesson in Scientific Peril.” The New York Times. Published 6 October 1998. Accessed 20 February 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/06/science/a-glow-in-the-dark-and-a-lesson-in-scientific-peril.html?pagewanted=all.

Hersher, Rebecca. “Mae Keane, One of the Last ‘Radium Girls,’ Dies at 107.” NPR. Published 28 December 2014. Accessed 20 February 2016. http://www.npr.org/2014/12/28/373510029/saved-by-a-bad-taste-one-of-the-last-radium-girls-dies-at-107.

Schlender, Shelley. “Watch’s Deadly Glow Recalls Worker Tragedy, Triumph.” Voice of America. Published 3 January 2011. Accessed 20 February 2016. http://www.voanews.com/content/watchs-deadly-glow-recalls-worker-tragedy-112885149/169008.html.

The Grimké Sisters

Happy birthday, Angelina Grimké! Angelina and her sister Sarah Grimké (pronounced grim-kee) became well-known speakers and writers in the mid-1800s, denouncing slavery and promoting women’s equality. While they certainly were not the only women who believed in abolition, they became famous for a few reasons. First, they were rich Southerners who had grown up with slaves. This experience convicted the two of their beliefs about slavery and gave them a unique vantage point when preaching to Northerners. Second, Angelina was a gifted orator and both were exceptional writers. Angelina drew attention because she spoke before promiscuous audiences.

Sarah (left) and Angelina (right)

Angelina was born on February 20, 1805 as the youngest of fourteen siblings and the daughter of a Charleston judge. Her sister Sarah, who was twelve when Angelina was born, was named her godmother, forging a special relationship between the two that lasted their entire lives.

Both sisters became abolitionists at a young age. Sarah, who was well educated, taught her slave handmaid to read, despite the law prohibiting slaves to become literate. As an adult, Angelina testified that experiencing suffering first-hand, seeing mistreated slaves, changed her heart, and she was convicted to abolitionism. The Grimkés were raised Episcopalian, but after meeting members of the Society of Friends (Quakers), Angelina converted to Quakerism, renouncing materialism and beginning a path of religious introspection. Her new faith convicted her to try to reform her family, believing them to be sinful for their materialism and acceptance of slavery. When her family refused to convert, she moved out of her parents’ house and joined Sarah in Philadelphia.

In Philadelphia, the sisters attended anti-slavery meetings but were not leaders of the movement until Angelina wrote to William Lloyd Garrison. In her letter, Angelina urged Garrison to continue to fight for abolition because it was a cause worth dying for. Garrison published Angelina’s letter (without her consent) in Liberator. Angelina received backlash for the letter from Quakers, who are pacifists, and believed she was too radical and condoned violence. (Angelina was soon expelled from the church for marrying outside the faith. Sarah was also expelled for attending the wedding.)

After the publication in Liberator, Angelina began her speaking tour, as the orator of the two. In 1837 she traveled from New York to New Jersey to Boston, speaking to mixed (promiscuous) audiences in churches about the abolition cause. As a woman, however, Angelina also had to defend a woman’s right to speak as a political issue. Angelina continued speaking until a mob attacked at a convention in Philadelphia. The building was set on fire and all the books and records were destroyed. Following that convention, Angelina resigned to teaching and writing.

Both Angelina and Sarah wrote extensively, penning “Appeal to Christian Women of the Southern States” (Angelina), “Letters to Catherine Beecher” (Angelina), “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes” (Sarah). These works appealed to Southern women to support abolition, Northerners to condemn colonization, and the cause of equality of the sexes. Sarah was personally invited to attend the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton because of her record as an advocate for the rights of women.

When the Civil War broke out, both sisters strongly supported the Union cause. Both sisters survived to witness emancipation and the start of the first wave of feminism. Sarah died at the age of 81 in 1873 and Angelina died in 1879 after being paralyzed by several strokes.

These women were incredible not only because they were women abolitionists but also because they were rich, white, Southern abolitionists. They advocated ending an institution that they had personally benefited from but saw fault in. Angelina and Sarah were the first women to serve as agents for the American Anti-Slavery Society, and Angelina was the first woman to testify before a legislative body. The Grimké sisters were also some of the first abolitionists to call for equality of the sexes as well as the races, believing that everyone should be fully equal.

 

Works Cited

Berkin, Carol. “Angelina and Sarah Grimke: Abolitionist Sisters.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Accessed 20 February 2016. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/slavery-and-anti-slavery/essays/angelina-and-sarah-grimke-abolitionist-sisters.

“Grimke Sisters.” National Park Service. Accessed 20 February 2016. http://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/grimke-sisters.htm.

“Grimke Sisters: American Abolitionists.” Encyclopaedia Britanica.” Published 13 January 2016. Accessed 20 February 2016. http://www.britannica.com/biography/Grimke-sisters.

“People & Ideas: Angelina and Sarah Grimke.” PBS. Accessed 20 February 2016. http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/angelina-grimke.html.

First Ladies You’ve Never Heard Of

Let’s be real. There are a lot of presidents that most people have never heard of (Arthur, Hayes, Garfield… Anyone?), let alone their awesome wives. So, in honor of President’s Day (the best holiday this weekend), I’m taking a look at just a couple of the badass women who lived in the White House but no one talks about. (Just so we’re clear, I love Martha Washington, Dolly Madison, and Eleanor Roosevelt, but I feel that they get all the love. So we’re spreading the love).

 Abigail Fillmore (First Lady 1850-1854, wife of Millard Fillmore)

Primarily her mother raised Abigail Fillmore, the youngest of seven children, after her father died when she was young. Her mother educated Abigail at home, using her late husband’s extensive library, instilling a love of literature in her daughter. She also developed a love and understanding of government, history, math, philosophy, and geography,

In early adulthood, Abigail worked as teacher. One of her pupils was her future husband Millard Fillmore, who had been in indentured servitude and had not had continuous education. Abigail helped him learn to read, and after school, he pursued his teacher. After marrying Millard, Abigail continued her work as a teacher until she had children.

Abigail Fillmore’s greatest legacy as a First Lady was her contribution to the White House library. There is some debate among scholars as to if she acquired the federal funding to start the library personally, but she was definitely involved. She also ordered the books to stock the library, inspired by the collection she had read as a child.

Abigail also worked one-on-one with the public, answering personal requests made to her. She was also a great advocate for equal access to higher education for women.

Caroline Harrison (First Lady 1889-1892 (her death), wife of Benjamin Harrison)

 Caroline Harrison was afforded a great education from her father, a university professor who believed that girls should be educated as much as boys. Her father taught at Miami University in Ohio but parted ways with the school over issues of abolition (he was accused of harboring runaway slaves) and schooling for girls. These issues later influenced Caroline’s own views on social activism. After leaving Miami University, Caroline’s father opened the Oxford Female Institute, where Caroline graduated with a degree in music. She worked as a teacher.

Caroline openly advocated for women’s rights and used her power as First Lady to influence women. When asked to patronize the establishment of a new medical wing at Johns Hopkins, Caroline Harrison refused unless the medical school admitted women—they did. She also was the first First Lady to serve as the President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Lou Hoover (First Lady 1929-1933, wife of Herbert Hoover)

Lou Hoover had an incredibly rich, long life of activism and academia. Here are some of the highlights.

As a child, Lou’s parents encouraged her to be physical and play sports, which was uncommon for the time, thought to be for boys. Not only did she play many sports, but also she became a master horseback rider. In later years she encouraged women to be as physically fit as men. She even served as the Vice President (and only female board member) of the National Amateur Athletic Association.

Lou showed an impressive aptitude for school from a young age. By the age of 14, she wrote papers on universal suffrage and independence for girls. She went on to study at Stanford University, where she became the first woman to receive a degree in geology from that institution.

Shortly after marrying Herbert Hoover, her husband received a commission in China and the couple set sail to live abroad. While in China, Lou developed a deep love and appreciation for the country’s culture and history. She also became fluent in Mandarin Chinese, in which she sometimes conversed with Herbert, but he was less fluent than her. In addition to Mandarin Chinese, Lou Hoover knew Latin and spoke Spanish, Italian, and French. As a project of passion, Lou and Herbert translated a never-before-translated 1565 guide to mining and metallurgy from Latin to English.

Lou Hoover was also a great advocate for girls and women. Along with her belief that women should be as physically active as men, she openly advocated men taking on the domestic roles allocated to their wives. She was a founding member of Girl Scouts and served as an early president. She broke boundaries by allowing both white and African-American girls in the troop she led.

Works Cited

“First Lady Biography: Abigail Fillmore.” The National First Ladies’ Library. Accessed 13 February 2016. http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=14.

“First Lady Biography: Caroline Harrison.” The National First Ladies’ Library. Accessed 13 February 2016. http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=24.

“First Lady Biography: Lou Hoover.” The National First Ladies’ Library. Accessed 13 February 2016. http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=32.

 

 

Tu Youyou (1930-)

Just last year, Tu Youyou became the first Chinese woman and only the fifth Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Prize. Tu won the prize in the field of physiology or medicine for “her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.” Tu shared the Nobel Prize with two other scientists who also developed anti-parasitic drugs.

Tu Youyou was born in 1930 in Zhejiang Ningpo, China. She went to school, receiving a university education, but she did not attend medical school or receive her PhD. She did, however, attend pharmacology school in Beijing.

In 1967, Mao Zedong, the leader of communist China, decided to invest in malaria research in order to find a cure for the disease affecting Chinese and Vietnamese soldiers in North Vietnam. He formed a top-secret research unit called Mission 523, named for the date of its inception. Because of political tensions, China’s top malaria expert was passed over in leading the research team. Within two years, Tu Youyou, who was not a doctor, was appointed the head of Mission 523.

China was deeply immersed in the Cultural Revolution, also pioneered by Mao. Tu’s husband had been sent away to the countryside to work, and she was left with their young daughter. While Tu was sent to Hainan, a southern Chinese island, to study the effects of malaria, her four-year old daughter was left in a nursery for six months.

When Tu returned from Hainan, she immersed herself and her team in ancient Chinese remedies, hoping to find references to the mosquito-borne illness. She, or some argue, her team, found references to sweet wormwood being used to treat ‘intermittent fevers,’ which she deduced was malaria. The remedy was from 400 AD. Her team worked to extract artemisinin from the wormwood, which she discovered treated malaria if heated but not boiled.

Upon receiving positive results from animal subjects, Tu Youyou volunteered to be the first human test subject, feeling that it was her responsibility as the head of the team. With a successful test on herself, Tu began clinical trials on Chinese laborers.

Ten years after Mao founded Mission 523 to cure malaria, Tu Youyou anonymously published her research on treating drug-resistant malaria with artemisinin. Tu received little credit for her discovery, and she was denied a place as an academician in China’s highest honorary body for scientists because she did not have foreign training or a PhD.

In 2009 Tu Youyou published her autobiography, reflecting on her scientific accomplishments. In 2011 Tu won the Lasker Award, a $250,000 prize, for clinical medical research, and in 2015 she won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Tu is 85 years old and resides in Beijing, China, where she continues to research, despite her struggle with osteoporosis.

 

Works Cited

Hatton, Celia. “Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou helped by ancient Chinese remedy.” BBC News, Beijing. 6 October 2015. Accessed 30 January 2016. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-34451386

Perlez, Jane. “Answering an Appeal by Mao Led Tu Youyou, a Chinese Scientist, to a Nobel Prize.” The New York Times. 6 October 2015. Accessed 30 January 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/world/asia/tu-youyou-chinese-scientist-nobel-prize.html?_r=0.

“Youyou Tu – Facts.” Nobelprize.org. Accessed 30 January 2016. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/tu-facts.html.

Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000)

She was called “The Most Beautiful Woman in Films” and “The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.” She wasn’t usually called an inventor, but she was. Hedy Lamarr, aside from being a beautiful and talented actress was the inventor and patent-holder for the “Secret Communication System”, or spread-spectrum radio.

Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary on November 9, 1914. Although she had an interest in science from a young age, she decided to pursue acting and began starring in German and Czechoslovakian films at the age of 17. She was soon noticed by a Hollywood producer, who offered her a contract in Hollywood. Believing the contract to be unfair and underpaid, she declined and paid her own way to America. En route, she negotiated her own contract with the producer and agreed to work with him for a much higher fee. Once in Hollywood, Hedwig legally changed her name to Hedy Lamarr.

Lamarr went on to star with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, but she quickly bored of her roles because she was rarely given speaking roles, cast primarily off her looks. Lamarr did not drink or party, preferring to exercise her mind. So, she had a drafting table built for her so that she could work on various projects. She worked on projects to improve stoplights and invented a tablet like Alka Seltzer that dissolved in water to create soda. However, Lamarr’s greatest invention was the “Secret Communication System,” which was patented in 1941.

When German submarines began targeting passenger ocean liners, Lamarr felt compelled to invent something to aid the Allied cause. With composer George Antheil, Lamarr created the spread-spectrum radio, which used changing radio frequencies to both stop enemies from detecting radio messages and solve the problem of enemies blocking radio signals on directed missiles. The spread-spectrum radio essentially created an unbreakable code to protect classified information using radio waves.

Although they received the patent in 1941, the Navy was not interested in Lamarr and Antheil’s invention when they offered it for use in World War II. It wasn’t until the Cuban Missile Crisis that the Navy implemented the technology to protect classified radio waves. Aside from military uses since the 1960s, the spread-spectrum radio proved essential to the development of wireless communications, including cell phone networks, Bluetooth, global positioning systems, and fax machines.

As often happens, Lamarr got very little credit for her invention. She and Antheil were not honored for the invention, which became essential in military security, until the 1990s. When she received the call that she had won an award for her invention, Lamarr, now in her 80s, responded, “Well, it’s about time.”

It is about time that we honored the women who do important things. So often society tells us that being smart and being pretty are mutually exclusive, but remember that “The most beautiful woman in the world” was also one of the greatest scientific minds of her generation.

 

Works Cited

“Biography.” Hedy Lamarr: The Official Site. Accessed 30 January 2016. http://www.hedylamarr.com/about/biography.html

“Hedy Lamarr: Invention of Spread Spectrum Technology.” Famous Women Inventors. Accessed 30 January 2016. http://www.women-inventors.com/Hedy-Lammar.asp

NPR Staff. “‘Most Beautiful Woman’ By Day, Inventor By Night.” NPR. 28 November 2011. Accessed 30 January 2016. http://www.npr.org/2011/11/27/142664182/most-beautiful-woman-by-day-inventor-by-night

Photo courtesy of Wayback Machine. Public Domain