Women's History Month - Marie Curie

Portrait of Marie Curie (1867-1934), Physicist
Originally uploaded by Smithsonian Institution

Among the many interesting photos in the Dibner Library's collection of portraits of scientists is this 1934 photo of Marie Curie (1867-1934). Curie was the only woman to win two Nobel prizes - the 1903 award in Physics, along with her husband Pierre, for research on radiation phenomena, and the 1911 award in Chemistry for her studies in radium and polonium. Marie was also mother to Irène Joliot-Curie, the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Marie Curie died in 1934 from aplastic anaemia, a blood condition often associated with exposure to large amounts of radiation.

We invite you to join the conversation about Marie Curie on Flickr, or view our entire portrait collection, "Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology" on our webpage. —Erin Clements Rushing