Kate Moore - The Radium Girls: Young Readers Edition

Copyright 2020 by Kate Moore

Cover and internal design 2020 by Sourcebooks

This work is adapted for young readers and is based on The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of Americas Shining Women by Kate Moore, copyright 2017 by Kate Moore, published by Sourcebooks.

Cover art Alexis Snell

Internal design by Danielle McNaughton/Sourcebooks

Internal stock images BananyakoSensei/Shutterstock

Photo acknowledgments,

Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.

The author and publishers have made all reasonable efforts to contact copyright holders for permission and apologize for any omissions or errors in the form of credits given. Corrections may be made to future printings.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systemsexcept in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviewswithout permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.

Published by Sourcebooks eXplore, an imprint of Sourcebooks Kids

P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

(630) 961-3900

sourcebookskids.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the publisher.

This product conforms to all applicable CPSC and CPSIA standards.

For all the dial-painters and those who loved them

I shall never forget you

Hearts that know you love you

And lips that have given you laughter

Have gone to their lifetime of grief and of roses

Searching for dreams that they lost

In the world, far away from your walls.

OTTAWA HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK, 1925

CONTENTS

AUTHORS NOTE

Dear Reader,

The women youre about to meet in this book are incredibly special, for so many reasons. I feel very lucky that Im the one who gets to introduce them to you. For these women are my heroes, and I hope by the time youve finished reading that they may be heroes to you too. Or, at the very least, good friends.

Their story is a true one, and it happened about a hundred years ago. It started with what they thought of as a piece of luck: when they were teenagers, they landed jobs that everybody wanted, paid really well, and were glamorous, artistic, and fun. They had no idea that, one day, you would be reading their story. You are doing so only because of how they faced what happened next. Because that piece of luck had a very dark flip side. Yet when the radium girls faced pain and heartache and injustice and tragedy, they did not suffer in silence. They chose, as a sisterhood, to rise up and fight backwith everything they had.

As a result, Americas shining girls now shine through history as an inspirational example of standing up for your rights. They stand as an example that no matter how small and powerless you may sometimes feel, you can make a difference. Because against all the odds, the radium girls made the world a better place. They made it better for every single person on this planet. These courageous women left us all an extraordinary legacyin science, health-and-safety laws, and human rightsthat their teenage selves would likely be astonished by.

But you never know what you may achieve when you grow up.

Their story may have started a hundred years ago, but please dont think that just because their story is old, it doesnt have any meaning today. If you look around, you may see echoes of it on the nightly news. You may see men and women fighting for justice just as the radium girls once did. And perhaps one day, like these young women, you too will lend your voice to a cause in order to fight for what you believe in. I hope you may take inspiration from them when that day comes.

The radium girls story is a sad one. While I was writing their book, I cried many times. Yet I hope, when you finish it, that youre left with a feeling thats like sunshine after rain. Because for all the sadness in their tale, you can still take hope from it. You can take strength from their strength and courage from their courage. Even though theyre not with us anymore, these amazing women live onin the beating hearts of those whose lives they saved, in their enduring gift of knowledge, and in the minds of those who read their incredible storywhich now includes you.

Thank you for being part of their legacy.

I hope you may use it, in your own way, to become a hero too.

Yours truly,

LIST OF KEY CHARACTERS

NEWARK AND ORANGE, NEW JERSEY

The Dial-Painters

The Carlough Sisters

Marguerite Carlough

Sarah Carlough Maillefer

The Maggia Sisters

Albina Maggia Larice

Amelia Mollie Maggia

Quinta Maggia McDonald

Their Colleagues

Edna Bolz Hussman

Ella Eckert

Grace Fryer

Hazel Vincent Kuser

Irene Rudolph, Katherine Schaubs cousin

Katherine Schaub, Irene Rudolphs cousin

The United States Radium Corporation

Arthur Roeder, president (from 1921)

Edwin Leman, chief chemist

Howard Barker, chemist and vice president

Sabin von Sochocky, founder and inventor of the paint

Doctors

Dr. Frederick Flinn, company doctor

Dr. Harrison Martland, Newark doctor

Dr. Joseph Knef, Dr. Walter Barry, Dr. James Davidson, local dentists

Dr. Robert Humphries, doctor at the Orange Orthopedic Hospital

Dr. Theodore Blum, New York dentist

Investigators

Dr. Alice Hamilton, Harvard School of Public Health,Katherine Wileys ally and colleague of Cecil K. Drinker

Andrew McBride, commissioner of the Department of Labor

Dr. Cecil K. Drinker, professor of physiology at the Harvard School of Public Health

Ethelbert Stewart, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, DC

Dr. Frederick Hoffman, investigating statistician

John Roach, deputy commissioner of the Department of Labor

Katherine Wiley, executive secretary of the Consumers League, New Jersey

Swen Kjaer, national investigator from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, DC

OTTAWA, ILLINOIS

The Dial-Painters

Catherine Wolfe Donohue

Charlotte Nevins Purcell

Ella Cruse

Inez Corcoran Vallat

Margaret Peg Looney

Marie Becker Rossiter

The Radium Dial Company

Joseph Kelly, president