Society of the Living Dead

 

In the years following World War I, Radium Dial was one of the best places for working-class girls of Ottawa, Illinois to earn good wages to help support their family or set savings aside for when they were married. Little did those girls know that the material they used to paint watch and instrument dials was slowly poisoning them. Even when realization dawned, they were faced with opposition from the radium industry, which did not wish to see their profits disappear, and the medical community, which had been using radium as a miracle cure. One group of dial painters decided they did not want to see future workers suffer their fate, so they decided to form the Society of the Living Dead.

Pearl Payne took the lead on forming the shockingly named organization. She worked at Radium Dial for less than a year, but she suffered health problems for the rest of her life that were attributed to radium poisoning. Along with coworkers, Catherine Donohue, Marie Rossiter, and Charlotte Purcell, Pearl convinced their lawyer, Leonard Grossman, that they needed to do more than win their own case against Radium Dial. They wanted to “band together, secure legal aid and in general use our organized presence to simplify, promote, and improve the laws relative to those who are maimed due to occupational hazards.”

The called themselves the Society of the Living Dead because some victims of radium poisoning had the eerie appearance of walking corpses. Charlotte Purcell had an arm amputated, and Catherine Donohue’s body wasted away to less than half of her healthy weight. Other women grew giant tumors or had their jaws and noses rot away. The varied symptoms of radium poisoning was one of the factors that made it difficult to diagnose and hold employers responsible.

The Society got the attention of the press and used it to spread awareness of the struggle of the “radium girls,” as they came to be known. Even the women who did not enjoy being the center attention allowed media photos of their emaciated bodies and underdeveloped children to increase sympathy and action. The news stories requested that readers send funds to help support the disabled workers whose families were struggling with medical bills and loss of wages.

Leonard Grossman was vital to the success of the women’s legal cases and the Society’s success at raising awareness. “You hear the voice of the Society of the Living Dead. That is the voice of the ghost women speaking not only here in this room but to the world. This voice is going to strike the shackles off the industrial slaves of America,” he stated in one interview. The women could not have succeeded without his tireless efforts and countless hours of free legal work.

As the former dial painters sickened and died, Radium Dial and other companies in the radium industry fought to deny liability or even the idea that radium might be causing their health problems. Without the work of the Society of the Living Dead, the fight to see radium poisoning recognized as an occupational hazard might have taken years longer. These women’s quest to protect others from the harm they had suffered saved countless lives, even as they lost their own.

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My book, Luminous, tells the story of Catherine Donohue, one of the key members of the Society of the Living Dead. Photos of her shrinking frame and her tiny children inspired sympathy and increased awareness across the country, but there is much more to her than those media photos and news stories. Her private struggle is what I strive to capture in Luminous. What did it feel like to fight for your life when even the medical community seemed to be an enemy? How did she cope with watching her health fail at the time of her life that should have been filled with health and happiness? How did a quiet Catholic girl stand up to the might of the radium industry? Find out in Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl.

Enjoy other articles in the Historical Writers Forum's American History Blog Hop!

 

Battling the Radium Industry

If you have read my novel, Luminous, you know that Catherine Wolfe Donohue's courtroom battle against Radium Dial ended victoriously - sort of. Catherine suffered physically and mentally due to the treatment she received at the hands of her former employer and even some townsfolk who did not want to see a big employer put out of business. Her case caused radium poisoning to be recognized by the Illinois Industrial Commission as an industrial disease for which employers should be held liable. Catherine's case was decided in 1938, long after those who studied radium were aware of its harmful effects. Also after Catherine had died.

Catherine Donohue with
Dr Charles Loffler

Employers in Illinois, Connecticut, and New Jersey utilized a variety of arguments to escape liability for instructing their employees in the use of the deadly substance. At a time when worker compensation laws were not robust and some still believed in a worker beware approach to dangerous jobs, knowing radium was poisonous was not enough. Those suffering from contact with radium had to prove it was the cause AND prove that their employers should be held responsible for it.

The women who worked at US Radium Corp in New Jersey fought for recognition much like the women in Illinois did. Grace Fryer searched for an attorney who would take on her case for two years, and once she found one she convinced other women to join the lawsuit. Their case first went to court in 1928, after several dial painters at US Radium Corp had died. The causes of their deaths, like women in other areas, were attributed to diseases such as diphtheria, tuberculosis, cancer, and, embarrassingly, syphilis. It was Grace and her friends who were first referred to as Radium Girls, a term that is now familiar and used for dial painters across the country. 

Grace Fryer

Grace and the other New Jersey women settled for a cash payout of $10,000 and their medical expenses paid for life, and their case paved the way for other women to stand up for themselves against the radium industry. Unfortunately, US Radium Corp was not done betraying these women. After covering some expenses, they stopped payments claiming that the women no longer suffered from radium poisoning. As the slow wheels of justice turned, US Radium Corp had the advantage that those suing them were dying faster than the courts moved.

Some of the debate over the women's causes of death were reasonable. Due to the way the human body absorbs radium as if it were calcium, the women experienced a wide variety of symptoms. Even for those who believed the cause was radium, it was difficult to state with certainty what one who was suffering from radium poisoning would experience. Those who suffered acute symptoms often lost their teeth, bones became brittle, and joints arthritic. Some women did not suffer as alarming early symptoms but later endured fertility problems and cancers. Anemia, sores, fatigue, weight loss and tumors were often reported.

As understanding of the variety of symptoms of radium poisoning increased, the attitudes of companies employing young women to work with radium infused paint did not change. If radium was dangerous, they were well compensated for the risk they took. Employers were not responsible for employee health, they attempted to argue.

Although few of the women who suffered radium poisoning gained much personally from their court cases, they did bring worldwide awareness to the dangers of radium. This knowledge led to protections for others in the handling of radium and other radioactive substances. Scientists working with plutonium as part of the Manhattan Project in the 1940s took strict precautions, partly due to the cases of the Radium Girls. In 1971, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration was established to ensure that what had happened to these women would not happen again. 

Letter to Pearl from Argonne Laboratory, 1978
Pearl Payne Collection, LaSalle Historic Society

The Argonne National Laboratory studied former dial painters from 1968-1993, compiling comprehensive information on the short and long term impact of exposure to radium. They exhumed the bodies of some who had died, including Catherine Wolfe Donohue's. The women's bodies exuded dangerously high levels of radioactivity decades after they had died and will continue to do so for hundreds of years. Many former dial painter graves will set off a Geiger counter. Catherine's friend, Pearl Payne, went to Argonne for years until she decided that her health was not benefiting from it.

However, radium was still used at Luminous Processes (the business created by owners of Radium Dial to protect assets from lawsuits) until 1978. Ottawa, Illinois, the home of Radium Dial and Luminous Processes continues to struggle with dangerous levels of radiation and elevated cancer rates, but how much worse might it be if a few working class women hadn't stood up for themselves back in the 1930s?

A monument near downtown Ottawa memorializes the dial painters who lived there, and other efforts have been made to honor their legacy. A new movie, Radium Girls, features fictional characters but closely mirrors the experiences of the New Jersey girls, including Grace Fryer. You may even recall a recent project to remember them with a modern glow-in-the-dark watch. I appreciate any efforts to ensure that history is not forgotten, especially the memory of those who sacrificed their own lives that ours might be better. But I think those working class women who believed they were blessed to obtain a well-paying job as a dial painter would be most proud of the protections that they have gained for others, even if their own names are often forgotten.

Shining Light on a Dark Past: BOLDR Venture Un.Dark

A few weeks ago, I was unexpectedly contacted regarding a unique idea that I am happy to share with you today. It is exciting to share the announcement of the Venture Un.Dark, a watch from BOLDR that honors the dial painters who suffered from radium poisoning to create glow-in-the-dark watches in the first half of the 20th century.

As my readers know, Catherine Wolfe Donohue was one of those women, and I am happy to see her honored and remembered by this lovely timepiece. Learn more in BOLDR's press release below.

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Shining Light On A Dark Past - BOLDR Supply Co. Pays Tribute To The Radium Girls With The Venture Un.Dark

BOLDR Supply Co. has released a special edition titanium Venture watch that commemorates the Radium Girls, who were young teenage factory workers handling highly dangerous radium-laced luminescent paint, completely unaware of its harmful effects. Their story is a solemn reminder of the watch industry’s dark past which claimed many lives before global health & safety standards were regulated. The Venture Un.dark is available now on www.boldrsupply.co on a limited release of 99 pieces.

SINGAPORE: BOLDR Supply Company is paying tribute to the sacrifices of the Radium Girls with a special edition titanium Venture named Un.dark, after the luminescent paint that was popularly used in the years during and following World War 1. The Radium Girls were a collective of young teenage factory workers who would handle this paint every day without protective equipment, exposing them to its harmful side effects and ultimately causing severe health issues and painful deaths to many. The watch is dedicated to the memory of the fallen girls, featuring an outline of a dial painter on its face and custom artwork on its caseback.

Following its discovery in the early 1900s, radium-laced paint eventually found its way to the US where it was painted on the dials of watches, clocks and airplane dashboards during the first World War. Young teenage girls were hired by industry giants such as the United States Radium Corporation (USRC) in New Jersey, to handle the patented Undark paint. Assured that it was perfectly safe to use, the girls handled the paint without any protective gear and even enjoyed painting their teeth and faces to make them glow in order to attract the attention of local boys. Each time their paint brushes were dipped between their lips to make a fine point for painting, they ingested small amounts of radium which seeped into their bones. Before long, they literally began to glow in the dark, earning them the nickname 'Ghost Girls'. 

At the time, radium poisoning was not a secret - male workers in chemical plants wore lead aprons and face shields when handling radium. Yet somehow, radium-laced products such as cosmetics and toothpaste were being advertised in a positive way. It was later discovered that this misleading propaganda was secretly funded by the industry players themselves, but prior to that virtually no member of the public knew they were slowly being poisoned.

Slowly but surely, damaging effects of radium begin to show - in 1922, one of the USRC workers named Mollie Maggia suffered abscesses in her mouth, disintegrating teeth, and a jawbone that dislodged into her doctor’s hands upon touching it. Horror stories such as these began cropping up and affecting teenage girls all over the country, but they were largely ignored, misdiagnosed, and shamed for unfounded accusations while corporations rushed to cover up their injuries and deaths.

A living Radium Girl descendent, Patricia Bauernhuber, recalls her family’s experience: “My grandparents, parents, and I lived in East Orange, NJ during the first four years of my life, a mile from the site of the infamous USRC watch manufacturing building. Our great-great aunt died a prolonged and painful death from years of working with the substance. Due to the path of the brook that abutted the factory where they dumped their paint waste, 70 years later the area would be a US Super Site for radium cleanup in Glen Ridge and Montclair. It would take many more years of disrupting neighborhoods and destroying property values to clean up those areas. The tragic saga of radium use in Essex County, NJ, and the young women who had to fight for recognition and treatment should be better known,” said Patricia, who expressed her gratitude for BOLDR’s commemoration to the sacrifice of countless Radium Girls.

With cases increasing over years, it took the courage and determination of a few heroic workers such as Grace Fryer in 1927 and Catherine Wolfe Donahue in 1938 to fight against guilty corporations and force governments to tighten work safety regulations. Writer Samantha Wilcoxson chronicled the arduous ordeal in her 2020 novel in hopes of raising awareness of these unsung heroes.

In Samantha's own words, “When I first learned about the fate of dial painters in studios using radium-infused paint, I immediately knew that I needed to write about their story. My novel, Luminous:The Story of a Radium Girl, is my tribute to these women, especially Catherine Wolfe Donohue whose faith and fortitude was an inspiration to me. The injustice and suffering that Catherine and her coworkers endured paved the way for many of the protections that workers have today. I am thrilled to see that BOLDR watchmakers share my passion to recognize the sacrifices of the Radium Girls. The Venture Un.dark is a lovely memorial to the hundreds of women who were exploited in order to create glow-in-the-dark watches. The ‘ghost girl’ on the watch face is a poignant reminder of the work these women did, and I especially admire the thoughtful engraving on the back. This watch is a wonderful way to honor women who are too often a forgotten part of our history."

The work safety laws that resulted from the sacrifice of Radium Girls eventually saved the lives of countless workers around the world, yet this story is not well-known even to those in the watchmaking industry. The Venture Un.dark was created to keep their legacy alive, and to thank the Radium Girls for their priceless contribution to society.

Visit www.boldrsupply.co to pre-order the Venture Un.dark today.

 

BOLDR Supply Company designs watches and gear to be worn, used and abused every day. When you wear a BOLDR product, you’re becoming part of a global #beBOLDR movement - a shared passion for the adventurous side of life, with a watch that’ll never leave your side.

The History behind Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl

 As a historical fiction author, one of the most common questions I am asked is 'How much of that story is true?' In all of my novels, I strive for historical accuracy as much as possible and try to fill in the gaps in a way that fits with historical figures' personalities and circumstances. Since Luminous takes place in a much more recent era than my previous works, I was blessed with source material from newspapers, personal letters, and even a visit to Ottawa, Illinois, where Catherine Wolfe Donohue and her friends lived.

If you have read Luminous, you know that each chapter begins with a historical quote from one of the people included in the novel or from a scientist or journalist of that era. I did this to constantly remind readers that this story is true. When you feel yourself getting angry at the actions (or lack thereof) of Radium Dial or you can't quite believe the suffering the women endured, remember that it is not a figment of my imagination.

One of the first and most priceless sources of material I discovered when researching Catherine's story were the newspaper articles stored by Len Grossman, son of Catherine's attorney, Leonard Grossman. Scrolling through the headlines feels surreal, and one can imagine the public's reaction at the time - those who felt the same anger and sympathy that we do and those who supported the radium companies and assumed the women were lying to make a quick buck. I appreciated that these articles offered images of the women. I had real faces to attach to the familiar names. I discovered that Catherine wore a polka-dot dress and insisted on having one on my book cover.

My next step was visiting Ottawa, Illinois, where Catherine lived her short life and worked at Radium Dial. The old schoolhouse that was home to Radium Dial was long gone - the material from its destruction having been spread around town and used for land fill, exacerbating the radiation problem that continues to plague the area. However, I was able to attend church at St Columba, where Catherine had been baptized and married. This was an important place to include in her story and it made me feel closer to her to be there. I was also able to climb Starved Rock and drive by the house she inherited from her aunt and uncle.

Today, Ottawa has a memorial to the dial painters who suffered and died due to the negligence of the radium industry. It isn't centrally located like the Lincoln-Douglas statue but sits on a quiet corner a bit away from the busier part of the historic downtown district. At first that made me a bit sad, but later I found it fitting. Catherine and her friends never wanted to be the center of attention. They were forced into it.

Not far away from Ottawa, the LaSalle County Historical Museum holds the Pearl Payne collection. Again, readers of Luminous will remember that Pearl was one of Catherine's closest friends who outlived her by several decades though she also suffered effects of radium poisoning. This collection gave me the most intimate look into the women's lives as I read their personal letters, quotes from which I included in dialog of my novel. I'll never forget holding a letter written by Catherine where she begged Pearl to visit because she was 'so lonesome and blue.' Pearl also kept a collection of newspaper clippings and record of the testing she underwent for study of the radium in her body. She kept telegrams from Leonard Grossman and a memorial card from Catherine's funeral.

Finally, I was able to locate - after much wandering and searching - Catherine Donohue's simple grave. It is located just outside town, near that of her husband, Tom, who never remarried. The historian part of my brain had expected something more monumental, but, like the downtown monument, I should not have been surprised that Catherine's memorial stone was simple and unobtrusive.

I wish I could have written Catherine a longer story. I wish she could have been healed and won a huge monetary settlement, but the truth of her story did not allow me to do so. That's the problem with history. It cannot be changed, but, hopefully, we learn from its lessons.

Haven't read Luminous yet? Read the first chapter for free HERE or purchase it on Amazon in paperback on on Kindle.

Luminous Women: Margaret Looney

 

Margaret Looney started work at Radium Dial in 1923, not long after Catherine Wolfe (Donohue) and Charlotte Nevins (Purcell). Her friends called her Peg. She was 17-years-old, too young to be working at Radium Dial according to their stated rules, but she was far from the only one. Some women remembered girls as young as 11 working in the studio as long as they were able to perform the fine work. Peg was quite capable, cheerful, and dedicated to earning an income that would help feed her large family of seven siblings (and counting!).

Peg had a habit of reading the dictionary and dreamed of being a teacher, but the wages at Radium Dial were too tempting for a working class girl. Besides that, she enjoyed working in the studio with the other young ladies who became fast friends. Since they were paid according to the amount of dials painted, Peg would sometimes even take work home. Her younger siblings enjoyed playing with the glow-in-the-dark paint.

Workers at Radium Dial, 1936

In 1925, some of the women at Radium Dial were beginning to feel symptoms of radium poisoning, although they did not realize that was the reason for their suffering. Red haired, freckled Peg was selected for health screening by her employer. Since she never received any results, she assumed that she was as healthy as any young woman would expect to be. Peg had a happy life with her friends, family, and a handsome boyfriend. Before long, she was engaged to be married.

Peg didn't make much of the problems she was having. Her jaw was sore, and she lost a few teeth. She lost weight and felt fatigued, but she kept working and living life as her failing health allowed. Sometimes, her boyfriend would pull her around in a little, red wagon when she lacked the energy to walk around town. She still enjoyed dancing and hanging out with friends as much as she could.

When news from New Jersey finally reached Ottawa, Illinois, Peg realized that she must be suffering from the radium poisoning that had caused the death of workers at US Radium Corp, but there was little she could do about it. Radium Dial management insisted that the radium compound in their paint was different - and safe. Peg could only hope that was true.

But it wasn't. Peg kept working, as she struggled to walk and her jaw disintegrated. She couldn't let her family down. She was at Radium Dial on August 6, 1929, when she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. Radium Dial doctors attended her and refused to allow her family visits. Peg Looney, who had loved to be surrounded by family and friends, died alone on August 14. Company doctors claimed the cause of death was diphtheria.

Memorial to radium girls in Ottawa, IL

Radium Dial continued to insist that the women's work was safe for years following Peg's death. More women sickened and died, but some took up the legal fight against the company. Their bittersweet victory came in 1938, far too late for Peg Looney and many of her friends.

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Learn more about Peg Looney and the other radium girls of Ottawa, Illinois in Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl.

Available for Kindle and paperback on Amazon worldwide.

"Well, mother, my time is nearly up."                                                               - Peg Looney

Luminous Women: Charlotte Nevins Purcell

 

Charlotte Nevins began working at Radium Dial when she was only 16-years-old, despite the company's policy that required employees to be at least 18. She was far from the youngest girl hired, and ability to paint tiny numbers was more vital than adulthood toward gaining employment. As one of the younger girls working in the dial painting studio, Charlotte was more likely than her older friends, Catherine Donohue and Pearl Payne, to join in the silliness of using the glow-in-the-dark paint as makeup before turning out the lights to make faces and giggle at one another.

She enjoyed the comradery of the studio and built close friendships with her coworkers. Despite her fondness for the young women she worked with, Charlotte did not stay long at Radium Dial. Her dream was to become a seamstress, so when the opportunity arose after a little more than a year in the dial painting studio, Charlotte grasped it. Her friends were sad to see her go but had reason later to be grateful that she had left when she did.

A few years later, Charlotte married Albert Purcell and many of her former coworkers attended the festivities. Some of them were beginning to experience symptoms of what they would later discover were caused by radium poisoning. When Charlotte gave birth to a tiny 2.5 pound baby in 1929, she may have wondered if her time in the dial studio was the cause. Many of her friends were ill, and Peg Looney, to whom Charlotte had been particularly close, had died after months of her body painfully wasting away.

With the Great Depression underway and a healthy daughter born within two more years, Charlotte can be forgiven for setting aside her concerns. After all, medical professionals were united in their claim that no such thing as radium poisoning existed. That might have been the end of it so far as Charlotte was concerned, except for a persistent pain in her arm.

In 1934, then the mother of three children, Charlotte travelled to Chicago for expert medical help. Her arm ached in a way that was abnormal for her 28 years. Even after an amputation, Charlotte felt phantom pain along with the stress of caring for her family with only one arm. A few doctors were putting forward the idea that the health problems suffered by Charlotte and her friends were caused by the radium they had been exposed to as dial painters. Missing an arm and concerned about the future, Charlotte joined Catherine Donohue, Pearl Payne, and others in bringing legal action.

With the town of Ottawa and the medical community divided over the women's case, Charlotte persisted, allowing journalists to use photos of her with her sad, empty sleeve to elicit sympathy from newspaper readers. Charlotte's health was relatively good after her amputation, but the same couldn't be said of her friends. Catherine Donohue especially seemed to be fading away before their eyes.

During the women's hearing, Charlotte had the satisfaction of testifying that Mr Reed of Radium Dial had had the audacity of claiming he "didn't think there was any such thing as radium poisoning" while looking at the young woman who was missing her arm. She had made a huge sacrifice for her 13 months on the job, but Radium Dial was finally held responsible. 

By the time that happened, Catherine Donohue was dead and Charlotte determined to not take a single day for granted. She lived until 1988, the extra decades of life likely granted to her due to the amputation that removed the worst of the radium poisoning from her body. Charlotte made it a habit not to say she couldn't accomplish a task because of her missing arm, and one of her grandchildren remembered her tying a jump-rope to a fence in order to jump rope. 

Charlotte also remained convinced that visits from a black and yellow canary were heavenly visitations from her departed friend, Catherine Wolfe Donohue. Like her friend, Pearl Payne, Charlotte participated in scientific studies to understand radioactivity and its effects on the human body. She continued to undergo tests and exams until 1985.

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Learn more about Charlotte Nevins Purcell and the other radium girls of Ottawa, Illinois in Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl.

Available for Kindle and paperback on Amazon worldwide.

"We were a bunch of happy, vivacious girls."

                             - Charlotte Nevins Purcell

Luminous Women: Pearl Payne

 

Pearl Payne worked with the young women at Radium Dial in the 1920s, and she was what I would have called a 'non-trad' back in my college days. She was a few years older than her coworkers, but, more notably, she was married. Pearl had her nursing certificate, but dial painting paid better, allowing her to sock away more savings for the day when she and her husband started a family.

Motherly and caring, Pearl was the oldest of thirteen siblings. She loved children and was eager to have a large family of her own. Little did she realize that the paint used in the Radium Dial studio caused miscarriage and infertility. Thankfully, Pearl worked there for only eight months. At the time, she was disappointed when her mother's health failed, forcing Pearl to give up her job to serve as caregiver. Only later would Pearl realize that this course of events might have saved her life.

During her short time at Radium Dial, Pearl had become close friends with Catherine Wolfe (who later married Tom Donohue). Pearl watched Catherine's health devastatingly decline after working at Radium Dial for nine years. Pearl remained relatively healthy and outlived her friend by decades, but radium poisoning did cause one heartbreaking health problem for Pearl. The woman who dreamed of a large family struggled to bear children.

Pearl holding Catherine's hand at IIC hearing

Pearl was plagued by tumors and endured multiple surgeries before realizing that she was suffering from the same ailment, though with varied symptoms, as her dear friend. By 1929, one side of Pearl's face was paralyzed and she had been hospitalized nine times. She feared she might be dying. Catherine was.

Pearl had the advantage of being trained as a nurse, so she realized better than many of the victims of radium poisoning that many of the illnesses suggested by medical professionals did not make sense as the cause of her suffering. When she was forced to have a hysterectomy in 1933, abruptly ending any dream she had of giving her daughter siblings, Pearl began to realize what was happening to the dial painters of Ottawa, Illinois. By the end of the next year, Pearl had brought together a group of women to challenge the legality of Radium Dial's operations.

To protect their assets, the owners of Radium Dial shut down the studio in 1936 . . . . only to reopen it a few blocks away under a new name: Luminous Processes. The workers were informed they would be safe as long as they didn't "lip-point" their brushes, and operations continued. Pearl and Catherine were determined to make a difference.

Desperate for justice - and money to pay the women's snowballing medical bills - Pearl's husband, Hobart wrote to famous attorney, Clarence Darrow, hoping that he would be willing to take on their case. Darrow was not able to help them directly, but he did refer them to Leonard Grossman, who turned out to be their knight in shining armor. 

Pearl wasn't content with the dial painters of Ottawa winning their own case, she also presented Grossman with the idea of an organization created to help other exploited workers. They gave it the morbid, yet apt, name The Society of the Living Dead. Months after the first meeting of the Society, Catherine Wolfe Donohue died of radium poisoning at age 35, leaving behind two small children. Pearl was heartbroken to lose her friend and even more determined to see justice prevail.

When the Supreme Court upheld the Illinois Industrial Commission decision to hold Radium Dial liable for the women's radium poisoning, Pearl did not stop there. She submitted to years of tests and exams for the Center for Human Radiobiology, helping to ensure that others did not suffer the way she and her friends had. 

Despite her radium poisoning related health problems, Pearl Payne lived until 1998. In her attic, she kept a baby stroller and crib alongside the papers she had kept through the years. Many of those clippings, letters, and other records can be viewed today at the LaSalle County Historical Museum. 

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Learn more about Pearl Payne and the other radium girls of Ottawa, Illinois in Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl.

Available for Kindle and paperback on Amazon worldwide.

"I belong to a class of women of which the medical profession does not know the reason for their illness."                                                               - Pearl Payne

Luminous Women: Catherine Donohue

 

It wouldn't be proper to begin this blog series on Luminous Women with anyone besides Catherine Wolfe Donohue. This quiet Catholic woman from Ottawa, Illinois 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.

Catherine Wolfe was born in 1903 in a midwestern town snugly settled along the banks of the Fox River. She was baptized, married, and took her first communion at Ottawa's St Columba, and went to school with the same young people she attended church with. When she was 19, she took a job at the company across the road from St Columba. Radium Dial had taken up residence in the old high school, and they hired young women to paint the fine numbers and lines on watches and instruments with radium infused paint to make them glow in the dark.

This was an excellent opportunity for Catherine and her friends. Working in a painting studio was more sophisticated and higher paying than domestic service or factory work. A quiet girl, Catherine formed close connections with her coworkers. She married Thomas Donohue in January 1932, just a few months after being fired from Radium Dial for poor health and a visible limp.

It would have been tempting for Catherine to settle into being a housewife and raising children, but she was concerned about her health, even more so because some of her young friends had died in recent years making Catherine wonder if there wasn't something dangerous in the paint they used in Radium Dial's studio. The radium industry by this time was well aware of the dangers of the luminescent paint, but inconsistent and underplayed efforts had been made to ensure the dial painters' safety. Radium Dial had briefly given the women glass pens to apply the paint with to stop the practice of lip-pointing brushes, but they were quickly discarded since the brushes were more efficient. 

The brushes were also how radium entered women's bodies. Trained to dip their brush in the paint, point the bristles with their lips, and then paint the tiny numbers on their dials, women like Catherine had been ingesting the radioactive substance for years. Initially told that radium was good for their health, as medical professionals did briefly believe, the women were not informed when new research and multiple deaths proved that people had been wrong about radium.

Profit is king, and Radium Dial continued operations until forcibly closed, long after the death of Catherine Donohue and others like her. In fact, Radium Dial had taken strides to protect it's cash and resources before Catherine's law suit was judged. It wasn't until her hearing before the Illinois Industrial Commission that Catherine and her co-litigants learned that only $10,000 in assets could possibly be paid - if they won - because Radium Dial's assets had been transferred to a new business. Luminous Processes operated just a few blocks away from Radium Dial's old schoolhouse. 

Suffering horribly from radium poisoning, Catherine testified about her years at Radium Dial. She weighed less than 70 pounds. Her teeth and jaw bone were falling out, and a huge tumor grew on her hip. Catherine was carried into the room to make sure the court heard what was happening to dial painters. Only when a doctor was asked to testify as to her prognosis did Catherine finally break down and fully accept that she was dying.

The hearing continued in the Donohue home, so that Catherine could complete her testimony tucked in on the family sofa. Scarcely able to move and her words slurred by the deformation of her mouth, Catherine demonstrated how she had created a fine point on her brushes with her lips and poisoned herself irreversibly. 

Catherine was victorious in her case before the Illinois Industrial Commission, and new worker compensation and employee safety laws began to be drafted, but Catherine never saw any of the settlement Radium Dial was ordered to pay. She died on July 27, 1938, while Radium Dial was still filing appeals. Final victory was bittersweet when the Supreme Court refused to hear Radium Dial's appeal and Tom, Catherine's grieving and bankrupted widower, received about $5,700, a fraction of the amount that had been spent on his suffering wife's medical bills.

Catherine's true victory came in raised awareness of the dangers of radium and worker exploitation. This could not save her or end the suffering of her friends, but it did decrease the chances that it would happen to another generation of working class women. The women's cases of radium poisoning also informed researchers during World War II and led to strict precautions in how radioactive substances are handled. It was one of Catherine's last hopes that, though she would die, she would be able to help and protect others.

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Learn more about Catherine Wolfe Donohue and the other radium girls of Ottawa, Illinois in Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl.

Available for Kindle and paperback on Amazon worldwide.

"It's too late for me, but maybe it will help some of the others."

                                                      - Catherine Wolfe Donohue

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Other suggested reading:

Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935 by Claudia Clark

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

Disposable Girls

 

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.

In the early 1920s, a position as a dial painter was considered excellent work for a young, working-class woman. The girls were skilled at the fine work, and the companies paid well to have the luminescent paint applied to small watch faces and instrument dials. Once girls obtained a position, they helped friends, sisters, and cousins get into the company as well. 

Then girls started dying.

But no one took much notice. When Mollie Maggia died in Orange, New Jersey, it was attributed to syphilis. Girls sickened with a variety of symptoms: loose teeth, fatigue, tumors, joint pain, headaches, and countless other complaints. The broad array of symptoms made it easier to ignore the common cause, the radium infused paint that the girls used daily. The fact that "only" working class girls were getting sick and dying also made it easier to dismiss.

Few besides the girls' families were concerned about the dangers of radium until it claimed a prominent, male victim. Sabin von Sochocky was the founder of US Radium Corporation and creator of radium paint. A young, successful doctor, he had learned about radium from the Curies who had discovered it. He was considered an expert on the substance and delivered a blow to the legal cases of the women suffering from radium poisoning when he testified in 1928 that the paint was not harmful. He denied that he had ever warned the dial painters about lip-pointing their brushes while using radium paint. However, later that year, Sabin von Sochocky himself lost his battle with radium poisoning.

Even after Von Sochocky's death, companies like US Radium Corp and Radium Dial continued business as usual and did not inform their employees of the dangers of the substance they used each day. Girls continued to sicken and die, and the companies continued to deny liability.

It wasn't until Eben Byers died in 1932 that the dangers of radium were made public knowledge. Byers was rich and had enthusiastically supported radium as a miracle cure-all. He drank Radithor, radium infused water, on a daily basis and recommended it to his friends. Before he died, he testified before the US Federal Trade Commission that he believed Radithor was killing him. He was right, and the Food and Drug Administration finally began an investigation into the substance that had been killing young women for at least a decade.

Yet, dial painting was still going on. 

Companies utilizing radium paint began instituting minor changes, most significantly discouraging the practice of lip-pointing paint brushes. This did slow the progression of illness and death in dial painters but did not stop it. Use of radium paint continued until the 1970s, increasing the rates of cancers and other diseases in Orange, NJ and Ottawa, Illinois. The waste and spread of radium in these communities created Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites that have cost millions in taxpayer dollars to clean up, a process that continues to this day.

The number of dial painters who died of radium poisoning is unknown due to the fact that their symptoms were often attributed to other causes, but studies of their experience helped update workers compensation laws and safety standards for dangerous substances that protect workers today.

Read more about Catherine Donohue and the Ottawa, Illinois dial painters in Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl.

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Suggested reading: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

Luminous Blog Tour

The last two weeks have been an adventure as I have traveled to some wonderful blogs to talk about Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl and Catherine Donohue. If you weren't able to visit each stop, they are listed below. Thank you to all the lovely book bloggers who welcomed me to their turf!

Luminous Blog Tour Stops:

Coffee Pot Book Club - Life in the Time of the Radium Girls
Stephanie Churchill - A Book Review of Luminous
Regina Jeffers - Worker's Compensation and the Radium Girls
History the Interesting Bits - Worker Exploitation at Radium Dial
Suzy Henderson - The Forgotten History of the Radium Girls
Paula Lofting - An Excerpt from Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl
The Writing Desk - Author Interview
Judith Arnopp - The Society of the Living Dead
Pam Lecky - Author Interview

Do you have your copy of Luminous?

Get it now on Amazon worldwide.

Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl

Catherine Donohue's life was set on an unexpected course when she accepted a job at Radium Dial. The pay was great, and her co-workers became her best friends. But a secret was lurking in the greenish-grey paint that magically made things glow in the dark. When Catherine and her friends started becoming sick, this shy Catholic girl stood up to the might of the radium industry, the legal and medical communities, and townspeople who told her to be quiet. Would she be too late?

Catherine's 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

Available NOW on Amazon worldwide.

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Diagnosing Radium Poisoning

The challenge of diagnosing radium poisoning caused the suffering of those who worked with it to go on for decades and enabled companies to avoid liability for its deadly impact. The first challenge was realizing that radium was, in fact, harmful when it had been initially lauded as a miracle cure-all. However, the more significant barrier to overcome was corporate greed. Even when radium was known to be dangerous, those who profited from it hid the truth at the expense of many lives.

How were they able to get away with such a thing?

Dial painters at Luminous Processes - 1939

Partly because the worst effects of radium poisoning became evident between the World Wars. While the 1920's were roaring, the 1930's saw families and entire communities suffering. Few wanted to be the one to speak out against a well-paying company like those that worked with radium.

Another factor was the problem with diagnosing radium poisoning. Dozens of deaths were attributed to other diseases and conditions for years before the truth was accepted. Radium was killing people.

One of the populations hardest hit was young, working-class women who worked as dial painters, using radium infused paint to make clock faces and other instrument dials glow in the dark. They would point the tips of their paintbrushes with their lips to complete the fine work, and, all the while, they were introducing fatal poison to their systems.

Girls in their teens and twenties working in dial painting studios started suffering from fatigue, headaches, digestive issues, and pain in their joints, but one of the worst symptoms of radium poisoning affected their mouths and jaws. They noticed loose teeth that eventually fell out, leaving behind sores that wouldn't heal. Several women eventually died from so much of their mouths rotting away that they bled to death.

Bedside hearing of Catherine Donohue - 1938

It was eventually discovered that radium took calcium's place in the women's bones, making them fragile and radioactive. Broken and disintegrating bones left some bedridden and others in stiff braces to hold their spines in place. If the early symptoms did not prove fatal, the women started developing tumors and cancers that left them infertile, required amputations, or caused their bodies to simply waste away.

This wide variety of symptoms and illnesses provided companies utilizing radium to argue that there was no single illness - no such thing as radium poisoning. Workers' Compensation laws were in early stages in the states where they existed at all, so most women and their families struggled with medical bills and loss of income as well as the illness itself.

The first test for diagnosing radium poisoning was developed after a male employee of US Radium Corp died. No one had listened to the female dial painters,  but the death of a male scientist was more difficult to ignore. During the autopsy, the victim's bones were reduced to ashes so that they could be tested with an electrometer, and radium poisoning was officially diagnosed for the first time.

This didn't help those who were sick, since their bones couldn't be removed and tested, so work began in earnest to develop additional tests. In 1925, decades after the discovery of radium, scientists and doctors finally determined ways to measure radioactivity in bones and breath. The dial painters who were tested had results that indicated radium deposits within their bodies at extraordinarily high levels.

Ottawa, IL EPA Superfund Site

Unfortunately, there was still no cure. While those who had worked with radium knew what was killing them, the information was bittersweet. Symptoms could be treated, but there was no way to remove the radium that was deposited into bones where calcium should have been. Women continued to sicken and die, while companies continued to profit from their labor for about two more decades before the nation's laws caught up with the needs of those who were vulnerable to exploitation and misinformation.

Environmental Protection Agency cleanup sites caused by radium deposits continue to cause health problems and cost taxpayers millions to this day.