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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
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Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
Labeled as “a very modest and undemonstrative woman,” by the Pacific Commercial Advertiser in 1910, Marie Curie’s accomplishments in the fields of science and physics were anything but. One of the most renowned scientists in history, Marie made her mark in her field in 1898 when along with her husband, discovered the new elements radium and polonium. Throughout her life, she dedicated her time to the study of these new elements and their practical applications. She was rewarded for her work with the Nobel Prize in 1903. She traveled to the US for the first time in 1921 where she was presented with 1 gram of radium by then President Warren Harding. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| July‑December 1898 | Marie Curie, along with her husband, discover new elements “polonium” and “radium” |
|---|---|
| 1900 | Curie becomes first woman faculty member at Ecole Normale Superieure (a French institute of higher education) |
| June 1903 | Curie receives her doctorate from the University of Paris December, 1903 Curie and her husband are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. |
| April 19, 1906 | Curie’s husband is killed in a road accident. |
| 1921 | Curie is presented with 1 gram of radium by US President Warren Harding at the White House. |
