Samantha Wilcoxson's Blog - Posts Tagged "radium"

My next book will look at one family's struggle with the effects of radium poisoning.

Coming this summer . . . .

Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl

Catherine Donohue was a quiet Catholic girl from a small Midwestern town, but she stood up to the radium industry, workers' compensation laws, and the Illinois Industrial Commission when her work as a dial painter left her body ravaged by radium poisoning. Her quest for social justice in the era between World Wars is emotive and inspiring.


It’s too late for me, but maybe it will help some of the others.
~ Catherine Wolfe Donohue

"Throughout history, women have often been treated like second class citizens. Women have had to fight for the right to be legally independent from their husbands and for the right to vote. Few cases demonstrate just how undervalued women have sometimes been than the experiences of the young women who worked with radium paint in the early 20th century."

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New blog series begins today! ⤵️
“Catherine Donohue inspired her friends, courageously challenged the radium industry, and made law-changing history in the United States. Her place in history is not one to which she aspired, but when injustice would have reigned Catherine gave voice to the vulnerable.”

Pearl Payne wanted nothing more than a large, happy family. She ended up battling the radium industry instead.

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