Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum

Birthplace of Maria Skłodowska-Curie on Freta Street in Warsaw's "New Town." The building now houses the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum.

The Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum (Polish: Muzeum Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie) is a museum in Warsaw, Poland, devoted to the life and work of Polish two-time Nobel laureate Maria Skłodowska-Curie (1867–1934). The museum, which is sponsored by the Polish Chemical Society, is the only biographical museum in the world devoted to the discoverer of polonium and radium.^[1]

The museum is located at 16 Freta Street (ulica Freta 16) in Warsaw's "New Town" district (dating from the 15th century), and is housed in the 18th-century apartment building in which Maria Skłodowska was born.^[2]

History

The Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum was established in 1967, by the Polish Chemical Society, on the centenary of the birth of the physicist-chemist. Participants in the museum's inauguration included the younger daughter and biographer of Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Eve Curie Labouisse; Eve's husband, the American politician and diplomat Henry Richardson Labouisse, Jr.; and nine Nobel Prize winners.^[3]

The museum is housed in an 18th-century tenement, at number 16 on Freta Street (Polish: ulica Freta) in Warsaw's "New Town," that has been rebuilt several times. After the death of Maria Skłodowska-Curie in 1934, a plaque was attached to the building, commemorating her birth there and her epochal scientific discoveries. During the Warsaw Uprising (1944), the building was deliberately demolished by the German forces, but the plaque survived and was put back in place after the building was reconstructed following World War II.^[4]

Collections

The museum is biographical in character, with permanent exhibits and periodic special exhibits. The holdings include photographs, letters, documents, the scientist's personal effects, comments by Maria and her husband Pierre Curie and others about her and her work and discoveries, and films in Polish, English and French about her and about physics and chemistry.^[5]

Prominently illustrated are Skłodowska-Curie's work in France and her involvement in scientific organizations and in the founding of the Paris and Warsaw Radium Institutes.^[6]

The museum endeavors to stimulate and support the interest of scholars, students and the general public in the life and achievements of Maria Skłodowska-Curie.^[7]

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, and closed on Mondays and Polish national holidays. Information may be obtained by email at [e-mail].^[8]

See also

• Warsaw Radium Institute
• Curie Institute (Paris)

Notes

1. ^ Małgorzata Sobieszczak-Marciniak, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, p. 6.
2. ^ Małgorzata Sobieszczak-Marciniak, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, p. 6.
3. ^ Małgorzata Sobieszczak-Marciniak, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, p. 6.
4. ^ Małgorzata Sobieszczak-Marciniak, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, p. 6.
5. ^ Małgorzata Sobieszczak-Marciniak, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, p. 6.
6. ^ Małgorzata Sobieszczak-Marciniak, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, p. 6.
7. ^ Małgorzata Sobieszczak-Marciniak, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, p. 6.
8. ^ Małgorzata Sobieszczak-Marciniak, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, p. 6.

References

• Małgorzata Sobieszczak-Marciniak, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum, Warsaw, Polish Chemical Society.
• 140 rocznica urodzin Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie; 75-lecie powstania Instytutu Radowego w Warszawie; 40-lecie Muzeum Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie w Warszawie: Materiały z konferencji, 15-16 października 2007, Pałac Staszica (140th Anniversary of the Birth of Maria Skłodowska-Curie; 75th Anniversary of the Warsaw Radium Institute; 40th Anniversary of the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum in Warsaw: Materials of Conference, Staszic Palace, 15-16 October 2007).

Coordinates: 52°15′5″N 21°0′31″E / 52.25139°N 21.00861°E / 52.25139; 21.00861