September 18, 2-3 PM: OASIS – Radium Girls

The Radium Girls

Friday, September 18th • 2 pm

Meagan Albrant, MA, Professor of U.S. History

In the 1920s, the new ‘in’ thing was a watch with a glow in the dark dial. Radium promised to be the answer to so many things; extend your life, make women more beautiful, treat colds! But the side effects of radium turned out to be deadly. Many working girls got jobs painting watch dials with radium, and were instructed to ‘sharpen’ the brush with their mouths. They ingested radium all shift long, which eventually led to devastating effects. We will investigate their story and what happened to these girls and the American workplace as a result.

View flyer: OASIS September