Bessie Coleman was a culmination of ‘firsts’ in one person. She was the first African American to be awarded an international pilot’s license, the first Black woman in the world to fly an airplane, and the first Native American to earn a pilot’s license and fly an airplane.¹ She was also likely the first person in her family to attend college for a full semester, and was the key catalyst in helping her family of independent women find their own paths as they moved from Texas to Chicago. Beyond all of these individual achievements, she also served as an inspiration for future women and African Americans who would follow in her footsteps or be the ‘firsts’ of their own professions. 

Early Life

Bessie Coleman was born on January 26, 1892 as Elizabeth Coleman. She grew up in Waxahachie, Texas, to a mom who was African-American and a dad who was part African-American and part Native American. In 1901, her father left for Oklahoma, also known as ‘Indian Territory’, in order to find more job opportunities. A few years later, her older brothers also left for Chicago, leaving Bessie as the oldest sibling to her three younger sisters. Even though she loved school and took advantage of the little opportunities presented to her in her one room, segregated schoolhouse, her childhood was filled with the king crop of the time, cotton. Each spring, Bessie’s school would close down for “cotton season” and Bessie, as soon as she was strong enough, had to go with her mother to pick cotton.² From a young age, Bessie hated the restrictions placed upon her in the South, and would frequently ‘slack off’ during her time working in the fields. She continued her interrupted education, and saved enough money to attend one semester of college at the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University. After one semester at the college, her money ran out and she had to go home. But, at 23 years old, having had enough of the segregation and limited opportunities in the South, she decided to join her brothers in Chicago. 

Bessie Coleman, like many other Black Americans during the early 20th century, moved from the South to Chicago during the Great Migration. Searching for better job opportunities and an escape from the severity of the Jim Crow South, she was a part of the “burgeoning black population in northern cities [that] had led to the growth of a middle class which seemed to represent the potential of the race.” ³ Because so many Black people were moving from Southern cities to the North, they banded together in ethnic enclaves, similar to many other minority groups and immigrants. In these enclaves, they had better opportunities for work and social mobility than they had in the South with strict Jim Crow laws. Even though Black people in the North faced the same segregation that they faced in the South, the community they built in cities like Chicago and New York City allowed Black migrants the ability to obtain jobs they could not have in the South. This combination of community and pluralistic identity gave the opportunity for a certain level of social mobility that would have been unobtainable for them previously. 

In Chicago, Bessie continued to dream of being something more than just a ‘common’ Black worker. Through her work as a manicurist, Bessie met many successful and influential people in Chicago’s Black community. These people further inspired her to want more for her future and her race. Although Chicago was segregated like the South, Bessie saw a flourishing Black community where people of her race could be successful. It was a combination of these successful people, as well as her brother’s experiences abroad, that convinced Bessie to pursue a future in aviation. After trying and failing to find someone to teach her how to fly, Bessie’s brother told her that “You n*gger women ain’t never goin’ to fly…not like those women I saw in France.”⁴ It was these harsh words from her brother which finally inspired her to go abroad—to France—to obtain her pilot’s license. 

Aviation Career

While I outline most of Bessie’s important aviation accomplishments in the timeline below, the start of her aviation career is also important. As Bessie tried to find a school or a pilot to teach her how to fly in America, Bessie was faced with two problems. First, no one wanted to teach a Black aviator, and second, no one wanted to teach a Black girl aviator. So, she turned her visions overseas, to the Ecole d’Aviation des Frères Caudron at Le Crotoy. During her time at Crotoy, she saw a student pilot die in a brutal plane accident, which she explains “was a terrible shock to my nerves, but I never lost them. I kept going.” ⁵ Bessie obtained her pilot license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) despite the threat of discrimination, segregation, or death. At the time, the FAI was the only international organization giving people the right to fly anywhere in the world.⁶ So Bessie returned as an internationally recognized Black woman pilot. She was ready to show the country that anyone who put their mind to it could take to the sky. 

As outlined in this timeline, Bessie performed a number of important entertaining shows. First, she performed the first air show performed by a Black woman. Next, she was the first person to offer plane rides to Black people in the South. In one of her shows, she was also the first person to have a Black woman parachutist jump from a plane. While Bessie was always passionate about aviation, her true passion was equality. She even left a movie planning to depict her life because they wanted to present her in “tattered clothing and with a walking stick and a pack on her back.” ⁷ She continued to emphasize the interconnectedness of her race and her success beyond leaving the racist movie set. She refused to perform at a show in her hometown where Black and White audience members would use segregated entrances. Once they agreed to let everyone use the same entrance, Bessie agreed to give the performance.⁸ 

Bessie’s biggest hope for her aviation career was to raise funds in order to open a school to educate future Black pilots. Throughout her career, she dedicated many shows and lectures to fundraising for this cause. She even settled down in Orlando, opening up a beauty school and focusing on lecturing rather than performing stunt shows, to raise more money to create this school for future Black students. In the last weeks of her life, she found her benefactor in Edwin M. Beeman, son of Harry L. Beeman, the creator of Beeman chewing gum. At the same time, she was living with Viola and Hezakiah Keith Hill, who reintroduced her to religion, and encouraged her to stop performing stunt shows and focus on targeting church crowds for funding for her school. Before her final show, she told the Hills that “the time she had spent with them was the happiest she had ever known.” ⁹

Death

Just as her life was seeming to come together, with funding, found family, and a sense of happiness and religion, Bessie’s life came to a sudden end. Bessie had plans to perform on May 1, 1926, in a stunt show in the Negro Welfare League of Jacksonville’s Field Day. For this show, she was serving as the parachuter herself, with a white pilot, William D. Wills, flying the plane. She used the money from her benefactor Edwin M. Beeman to buy an old “Jenny” which she intended to fly at the Florida show. Wills flew the plane from Dallas, Texas, to Jacksonville and was forced to make two stops due to the poor condition of the plane. Despite the poor condition of the plane, Bessie met Wills and her agent and the promoter of her stunt show, John Betsch, at the field at 7:15am on April 30, to scout the area for where the best spot to jump would be. ¹⁰ She was not strapped into the plane, as she was actively searching for somewhere to jump. Suddenly, the plane went from cruising at 80 miles per hour to 110 miles per hour, and nose dived downwards. At 1,000 feet, the plane did a tail spin, and then at 500 feet, it flipped upside down, and Bessie fell out, somersaulting repeatedly until she hit the ground.¹¹ Wills attempted to regain control of the plane, but it crashed into a nearby farm of Mrs. W. L. Meadows, killing him instantly. After the plane crashed in Meadows’ farm, Betsch, came with police to view the remains of the crash. Upon seeing the crash site, he lit a cigarette to calm his nerves. But, when lighting the cigarette, the lighter fluid mixed with the gasoline of the plane, setting everything on fire. He was immediately taken into custody under suspicions of trying to destroy evidence, but he was later released. After the tragic death and fire, the fair and dance in Bessie’s honor that were supposed to be held afterwards were replaced with a memorial service, which over 5,000 people attended. 

Aside from her memorial in Jacksonville, Bessie had another memorial in Orlando, organized by Viola and Hezekiah Hill. After this service, Viola Hill and a military escort traveled with her body to Chicago, where over 10,000 people went to pay their respects throughout May 5 and May 6. Her final service, for close friends and family, was held on Friday May 7, and though only 1,500 people could fit inside the church, another 3,500 stood outside on the street.¹² The plethora of memorial services and viewing opportunities show just how much of an effect Bessie had on the Black community. Her death even received notice in white newspapers, such as The Morning Press, The Daily News, The Tampa Tribune, The Miami News-Record and many others. ¹³ While these newspapers had short descriptions and referred to Bessie as a ‘Negress’ or ‘Negro aviatrix,’ many Black newspapers dedicated columns, front pages, and entire sections to her, even days after her death. In the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper,  George S. Schuyler wrote a memorial to her, summing up Bessie’s hope for herself and her impression on the black community in a few sentences:  “Bessie Coleman wanted to be an aviatrix and would not be frustrated by racial barriers. She succeeded in spite of them. More and more younger Negroes are following in her example. Many more ought to.” ¹⁴

Bessie’s Significance in the 1920s and Beyond

Growing up African-American in the early 20th century, Bessie Coleman was a prime example of the struggles of handling a pluralistic identity during the 1920s. As the first Black woman to fly an airplane and the first Black person to hold an international pilot’s license, Bessie Coleman strived to help improve the opinions of Black people in professional fields as she broke the glass ceiling in the aviation field. She had the similar mindset to other Civil Rights activists during the 1920s, which was that the issue of “twoness could be resolved–that they could be both American and black, without sacrificing either.”¹⁵ The struggle of handling pluralism and American identity was an obstacle in Bessie’s work as an aviator, but she also used her multiple identities of being Black and a woman to inspire future generations. The discrimination, segregation and limited attention to her achievements and her advancements in women’s working rights all connect Bessie to the larger struggles experienced by minority populations in the 1920s. 

Combating Segregation

Bessie’s biggest focus in her aviation career was to establish a school to educate future Black pilots, because of the segregation and discrimination she faced when obtaining her education. Many times throughout her life, she was quoted as saying that “We must have aviators if we are to keep up with the times. I shall never be satisfied until we have men of the Race who can fly.” ¹⁶ She wanted others to follow in her footsteps, and show people who believed that African-Americans were not as smart as White Americans that they could succeed just as much when given the opportunity. Her willingness to branch out into a field severely underpopulated with both Black people and women helped inspire future aviators of her race to do the same:  “Coleman’s return to the U.S. in 1921 as a fully qualified pilot helped African Americans reclaim some agency in aviation.” ¹⁷ Even though a very limited number of Black people had served as pilots in segregated forces in WWI, there was no space for them in the aviation field when they returned to the United States after the war. Further efforts, like refusing to perform at segregated shows in the South, shows her efforts throughout her career to improve the discrimination and segregation that she faced herself. 

While Bessie was never able to open her school for Black pilots, she did inspire many future Black pilots with her resilience and determination despite the segregation she faced. Wiliam J. Powell, a famous Black aviator who founded the Bessie Coleman Aero Club in her honor, dedicated his book “Black Wings” to her.¹⁸ Powell, like Coleman, pushed for more Black aviators, and built a school for Black pilots and mechanics, as Bessie was unable to. Even though he created this school after her death, Bessie still had a profound impact on Powell and inspired him to continue her work in improving opportunities for Black Americans. 

Paving the way for Future Minorities

Through Bessie’s hard work to become a pilot despite the discrimination she faced, she helped pave the way for future women and Black people in fields dominated by white men. In her article on the legacy of Bessie Coleman and Dr. Mae Jemison, Kim Creasman explains that “women like Bessie Coleman, the first African-American female pilot, have shown us that there are many qualified women in our society to take a chance to modify the stereotypes of women and African-Americans.” ¹⁹ Even in the present day, Bessie stands as an inspiration for people trying to get involved in fields that are historically exclusionary towards them. As the 1920s, especially in the South, were not only segregated but outright racist and exclusionary to Black professionals, Bessie’s success and mention in a multitude of White newspapers was “sure evidence of the revolutionary change, however slow, subtle, or imperceptible, she was effecting on white attitudes towards blacks, at least in her home state of Texas.” ²⁰ Though the 1920s were still filled with discrimination and lack of opportunities for Black men and women alike, Bessie was one of the many cases of extraordinary women who succeeded despite the lack of opportunities for her, which inspired young minds in the 1920s and beyond.

While she may not have received recognition from white communities during her lifetime, Bessie was an inspiration to black communities and future black aviators alike, like Lieutenant William J Powell. Powell explains how Bessie inspired a future generation because of her willingness to break into a majority-white field:  “Because of Bessie Coleman we have overcome that which was much worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.” ²¹ Just like his Bessie Coleman Aero Club, many other organizations were created after her death to honor her and help financially support Black women and men who wanted to go into aviation or similar fields. Organizations like the Aviation Youth Empowerment Foundation have scholarships honoring Bessie Coleman, presented to women, Black Americans, future aviators and future STEM students who have overcome barriers to obtain their college degrees. In the years after her death, many roads were renamed in her honor. In 1996, the US Post office created a stamp in her honor, as a part of the Black Heritage Stamp Series, as seen to the right. Even though it took many years for Bessie’s death and accomplishments to be fully recognized by the American public, she served as an inspiration to Black Americans and women that they could pursue any career they wanted, as long as they put their mind to it.

Suggested Reading

Cline, P.E. “The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Socio-Economic Status in the Life of Bessie Coleman.” Collegiate Aviation Review International, 2019, 37(2), 133-156. Retrieved from http://ojs.library.okstate.edu/osu/index.php/CARI/article/view/7915/7308

Grossman, Ron. “That Road o’hare Is on? It’s Named for Bessie Coleman, Who 100 Years Ago Became the First Black Woman Pilot in America.” Chicago Tribune, November 24, 2021. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2021/11/24/that-road-ohare-is-on-its-named-for-bessie-coleman-who-100-years-ago-became-the-first-black-woman-pilot-in-america/. 

Lebow, Eileen F. Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation. (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2002).

Mathias, Marisa, and Mariana Brandman. “Biography: Bessie Coleman.” National Women’s History Museum. Accessed April 7, 2025. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/bessie-coleman. 

Bibliography

Bix, Amy Sue. “Beyond Amelia Earhart: Teaching about the History of Women Aviators.” OAH Magazine of History 24, no. 3 (2010): 39–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25701421.

“Crash Kills 2 Flyers” The Daily News, (New York, NY), May 1, 1926. p. 5

Creasman, Kim. “Black Birds in the Sky: The Legacies of Bessie Coleman and Dr. Mae Jemison.” The Journal of Negro History 82, no. 1 (1997): 158–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/2717501.

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024.

“Man and Negress Killed in Accident Near Jacksonville” The Tampa Tribune, (Tampa, FL), May 1, 1926, p. 5

“Negro Aviatrix Killed When Plane Falls” Miami News-Record, (Miami, FL), April 30, 1926, p. 1

“Negro Woman Flier and Press Agent Die in Plane Fall” The Morning Press, (Santa Barbara, CA), May 1, 1926. p. 5

Powell, William J. Black Wings. HathiTrust. Originally published 1934. Accessed April 7, 2025. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4500439&seq=9&q1=bessie. 

Rich, Doris L. Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.) 

Schuyler, George S. “Views and Reviews” Pittsburgh Courier, (Pittsburgh, PA), May 15, 1926, p. 9 

Slotnik, Daniel E. “Overlooked No More: Bessie Coleman, Pioneering African-American Aviatrix.” The New York Times, December 11, 2019. 

1. Daniel E. Slotnik “Overlooked No More: Bessie Coleman, Pioneering African-American Aviatrix.” The New York Times, December 11, 2019. ︎
2. Rich, Doris L. Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993,) 10. ︎
3. Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024, 286. ︎
4. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 27. ︎
5. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 32. ︎
6. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 34. ︎
7. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 57. ︎
8. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 95. ︎
9. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 105. ︎
10. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 109. ︎
11. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 110. ︎
12. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 113. ︎
13. While a number of white newspapers reported on Coleman’s death, the ones mentioned here are; “Crash Kills 2 Flyers” The Daily News, (New York, NY), May 1, 1926. p. 5; “Man and Negress Killed in Accident Near Jacksonville” The Tampa Tribune, (Tampa, FL), May 1, 1926, p. 5; “Negro Aviatrix Killed When Plane Falls” Miami News-Record, (Miami, FL), April 30, 1926, p. 1; “Negro Woman Flier and Press Agent Die in Plane Fall” The Morning Press, (Santa Barbara, CA), May 1, 1926. p. 5 ︎
14. Schuyler, George S. “Views and Reviews” Pittsburgh Courier, (Pittsburgh, PA), May 15, 1926, p. 9  ︎
15. Dumenil, The Modern Temper, 2024, 294. ︎
16. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 36. ︎
17. Amy Sue Bix. “Beyond Amelia Earhart: Teaching about the History of Women Aviators.” OAH Magazine of History 24, no. 3 (2010): 41. ︎
18. Powell, William J. Black Wings. HathiTrust. Originally published 1934. Accessed April 7, 2025, 1. ︎
19. Kim Creasman. “Black Birds in the Sky: The Legacies of Bessie Coleman and Dr. Mae Jemison.” The Journal of Negro History 82, no. 1 (1997): 158. ︎
20. Rich, Queen Bess, 1993, 87. ︎
21. Powell, Black Wings, 1934. ︎

hannahsteinlauf

Hannah Steinlauf is a senior history major with a minor in museum and exhibition studies at Ramapo College. She is a student research aide for the Jane Addams Papers Project. She is a member of the Ramapo College Dance Company and Tri Sigma. Hannah is going to attend Trinity College Dublin for a masters degree in Public History after graduation.

Discovery of Radium

Radium, the 88th element on the periodic table, was discovered by Marie and Paul Curie in 1898. The couple noticed that their samples glowed blue in dark or limited light, due to the element’s radioactivity, which sparked a broader interest in the element. From the start of the discovery of radium, there was an interest in the luminescence of the chemical, but there was also a concern over the health and safety of people interacting with the element on a daily basis. Strict limits were almost immediately put in place for scientists and doctors who interacted with radioactive substances on a daily basis, but the same protections were not put in place for factory workers such as the radium girls. Marie Curie herself said that she was “surprised that the U.S. Government would permit the handling of such dangerous substances as radium in such a careless manner.” ¹ She even claimed that the ingesting of radium in the way that dial painters did was “criminal.”

Despite Marie and many other health professionals’ knowledge of the dangers of repeated exposure to radium, it was very quickly advertised to the public as “a wondrous and powerful element: a cure for cancer, and a source of beauty and vitality.”² Radium was advertised for any issue beauty or health related. Starting in the 1920s, working with radium was seen as a respectable, covetable job by many women looking to work outside the home, even though the dangers were already known to many scientists. 

United States Radium Corporation

The establishment of the United States Radium Corporation (USRC) factory in Orange, New Jersey in 1917 increased daily interaction with radium, specifically in groups of young girls aged 15-30. At the factory, girls were employed and paid approximately a penny and a half per watch dial that they completed. In an effort to make dials quicker and earn a higher daily wage, girls were instructed to do the “lip, dip, paint” technique to make the paint brushes have a finer tip, which in turn would make the lines on the watch dial more precise. By doing this, they could produce more watches per day. But, this also meant that they were ingesting more radium on a daily basis, as they pointed the tips of the paintbrushes in between their lips between every few dials they made.

During the height of World War I, the factory reached its peak production as watches were sent overseas to help men see the time in darkness. Over 300 girls were employed and painting watch dials during that time, and by 1924, approximately 50 had died and their deaths were attributed to radium-related ailments. While USRC did not take responsibility for the deaths yet, women who had been healthy five years prior contracted extreme diseases, like radium necrosis, also known as “radium jaw,” (as seen in the picture on the right) loose teeth, mouth ulcers, severe anemia, bone shrinkage and fractures. One of the sisters of the five girls who went on trial, Molly Maggia, died in 1922, and her death was attributed to syphilis, like many of the other radium girls dying in the early 20s. Dr. Martland, a New Jersey investigative surgeon, later attributed her death to radium poisoning, as he was studying the deaths of other radium girls.

Many of the girls who died in the early years before the trial had their reputations tarnished with accusations of syphilis, and they did not receive proper respect or diagnoses until years after they died. Similar to this is the case of Miss Eckert, a radium girl whose death was attributed to “shock from operation” and later re-diagnosed as radium poisoning. As the radium girl’s trial began, an autopsy was performed, which “showed that she was so full of radium that her bones fairly glistened in the dark.”³ Before the official start of the trial, and even as the girls were awaiting their decisions from the jury as the USRC continued to ask for a continuance, they continued to get sicker. In a sad interview with the Courier-Post, Quinta Maggia McDonald, sister of the now deceased Mollie Maggia, laments: “No, I no longer have any hope. I face the inevitable unflinchingly. What else can I do? I don’t know when I will die.” ⁴The map below details just a few key points in the history of Radium, from its discovery, to the deaths of many girls involved in the trial.

Five Girls and Their Fight for Justice

In January 1928, Grace Fryer, Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, Quinta Maggia Mcdonald and Albina Maggia Larice began their lawsuit against the USRC. Grace, the leader of the five girls suing USRC, tried to find a lawyer for many years before the trial officially began, as she noticed the frequent and irregular deaths of her friends and coworkers. She wanted to sue for compensation of medical bills, business malpractice and misinformation for the hazards of radium that they were ingesting daily. But, because of the strength and influence of the USRC, it took Grace over 2 years to find a lawyer willing to represent the girls. By the time that they found Raymond Berry, an attorney willing to take on the case, two of the girls were bedridden, and none of them could even raise their hands to take an oath. All of the girls already knew they were dying, like Edna Hussman admits in her interview with the Evening Courier, and they just wanted to win “because with the money us girls could have some of the comforts and joys of life before we go” rather than struggling to pay their increasing hospital bills.⁵ So the trial was less about getting the girls justice – they already knew they were doomed – and more about holding the USRC financially responsible for them, and potentially for future illnesses as well.

One of the biggest struggles of the radium girls trial was obviously ensuring that the USRC admitted their knowledge of the dangers of radium, and took responsibility for the death and illnesses of dial painters. One of the other more practical struggles of the trial was ensuring the girls could even attend. As they were all sick and dying, they needed many doctors appointments which took precedence during their days. Additionally, the USRC kept asking for a continuance, and trying to force the trial back, in hopes that the girls would just die, and the trial would die down. While many people argued that a trial or settlement needed to occur quickly before the girl’s deaths, the date kept being pushed back. Finally, evidence was pulled from a  judgement of medical statistics by Dr. Frederick Hoffman done in 1925 showed that out of the 12 dying dial painters studied, 10 of them had necrotic lesions on the jaw bones directly connected to radium intake.⁶ USRC, unable to deny the obvious radiation poisoning of the girls who ingested radium, offered a settlement. The girls decided not to proceed with the trial, and to take the money.  

The USRC offered the girls each $10,000 as well as $600 per year, for the rest of their lives, however short those were. They also agreed to pay the full medical and dental bills of the girls, which laid the precedent for the case of the Radium Girls from the Ottawa, Illinois plant in 1937. Even though the girls won their case, they were not the winners in the end, as they died before they, often poor, severely sick, and just ‘awaiting the inevitable.’ Many people saw these girls’ deaths as a repercussion for them working outside of the home. An Evening Courier article says that the girls’ struggle for representation and for payout from the trial was “just one more little illustration of some of the cons of this “career outside of the home” business.” ⁷ Even on their deathbeds, the girls were being criticized for working outside of the home, and this article makes it seem as if they had just stayed home, they would never have gotten radium poisoning in the first place. This trial brought to light just a few of the misogynistic ideals girls faced in the 1920s, whether it was their struggle to find a job in the first place, their struggle to find a lawyer, or the criticism that if they had not taken this job, they would not be dying of radium poisoning in the first place.

Significance — The 1920’s and Beyond

New Women in the 1920’s

The Radium Girls connection to other radium based deaths like those in Ottawa were not the only important aspect of their case. They also related to many broader cultural themes of the 1920s, like the New Woman. The New Woman was an idealized woman in the 1920s who worked outside of the house, typically only until she had a husband, at which point she would be expected to give up her job. The most widely depicted new women were middle class white women, who worked in “feminized” jobs, like dial painting, education, secretary work, or retail. The Radium Girls, with their non-unionized work, “feminized” pay, and gendered job opportunity are a prime example of the New Woman that became so popular in the 1920s.

As Radium grew into an important part of the consumer culture of the 1920s, it was a desirable job for women to work with the new glowing substance. As seen in the advertisement on the right, Radium was originally advertised as a panacea for any beauty or health issue: health tonics, tooth paste, hair creams and many more items fell victim to the radium craze. Radium girls would frequently use the radium to paint their nails or other parts of their body in order to create a glow in the dark look. These women were not informed of the negative effects of Radium, even though many officials in the company already knew about the effects by the time that Radium was being widely consumed. But due to US Radium Company’s greed and want for success in the growing consumerism market, specifically dominated by the “new women” who now had “pin money” from their jobs, they continued to push the poisonous radium on the public.

Consumerism was another growing issue from the 1920s specifically as women had more money to spend, they wanted to follow the trends of higher-status women, thus leading to a growing consumerist market that focused more on advertising to a larger audience of women. While the New Woman was dominated by middle and upper class women who had the freedom to do what she wanted, lower class women aspired to be like them and follow the trends they laid out. So, when women like the one in the advertisement said that they used radium for their hair or nails, lower class women purchase more radium based beauty products in order to follow the culture outlined by other women.

In the end, despite the appearance of a “better work” and “better life” for the Radium Girls, they ended up suffering just as much as the minority women who worked in brutal factory jobs and “encountered harsh conditions and discrimination” for low pay.⁸ These women were continuously ingesting Radium in small doses, and over the years, ended up dying tragic and often gruesome deaths due to radium poisoning. Despite their tragic deaths, the Radium Girls, like other New Women, had a lasting effect on consumer culture in the 1920s, and on women’s rights in general. 

Overall, the Radium Girls were a real life example of the 1920s idea of a “New Woman.” They worked outside of the home, in a feminized field, and received a ‘woman’s pay.’ They spent the majority of the money they earned in the budding consumerist market, and they even used the radium to decorate their bodies in order to appear more good looking or intriguing. At the end of the day, working as a radium girl gave the girls “an individual public existence, a public identity of her own, and a sense of her own worth.”⁹ Even though they all died from their exposure and ingestion of radium, they became a household name—especially in New Jersey. 

Worker’s Protections

The radium girls connect to so many different lasting themes of the 1920s, like consumer culture and women’s rights, but also worker’s health and safety regulations. Although the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was not made for another 50 years after the Radium Girls trial, they did have an effect on women workers rights. Women were typically not protected by the workers rights unions of the times, as unions did not extend membership to women workers in factories. For women who did not work in factories, typical women’s jobs, such as dial painting, secretarial work, or teachers, were not yet unionized. 

For instance, there were many safeguards for medical professionals working with radiation as early as 1903, long before the US Radium Corporation built their New Jersey factory.¹⁰ While there had been minor cases of radiation burns or poisoning in the early 20th century, more serious examples of burns from exposure to X-rays and radiation in doctors were found, reported, and handled by 1911.¹¹ In response to this health risk to medical professionals, there were increased health and safety regulations for physicians and medical professionals. In order to protect the professionals from the harmful effects of radiation, medical professionals had a strict limited exposure to X-rays and protection via medical shielding when handling radioactive substances. These medical professionals, after a few deaths in the early 20th century, were now effectively protected in order to limit future radiation-based illnesses.

While the harmful effects of radium were known and protected in doctors, women working in dial painting did not have the same protections while they worked with radium. For example, after the Radium Girls court case, “the New Jersey workers’ compensation laws were changed slightly, but not enough to help those who developed cancer and became disabled many years after their exposure.”¹² While there were many issues brought up after their death, like this article written by the The Courier News which charges US Radium with murder of the girls, very few actual changes were made in the direct years after the trial.¹³  It was only after the deaths of many girls that doctors like Dr. Martland or Dr. Hoffman attributed their deaths to radium. The protections laid out for women working in radium were often bare bones, and usually did not financially support the women in the years after their employment for the illnesses they contracted.  

It was not until the 1950s, when working on the Manhattan Project, that the radium girls got their justice and finally created protections for people working with radium. Through a study of the dead and alive radium girls during the 1950s, doctors established “the level of radioactivity associated with cancer and other changes in the skeleton and soft tissues.¹⁴ When realizing that the girls still had radioactive substances present in their bodies as long as ten, twenty, or thirty years after their death, the girls played a key part in establishing “maximum permissible standards for all workers exposed to radiation.”¹⁵ People argued, in some cases thirty years after the girls had died, that their increased exposure and consumption to radium was not only inhumane, but was also the cause for their extreme diseases and sicknesses. So, even though the radium girls did not get the justice they deserved in their lifetime, the study of their bodies and their illnesses in the 1950s established the expectations for radiation exposure.

Conclusion

Overall, the story of the radium girls is a tragic tale of a group of women who, in a struggle for freedom, self-sufficiency, and success in the 1920s, ended up dying gruesome deaths. These women left their home in an effort to make money in a recently “womanized” field painting watch dials. These watch dials were often painted with radium, in order to make them glow in the dark, so they could be more useful to men off at war in the dark or at night. Dial painters were instructed to “lip, dip, paint” for a finer line on the watches they painted, even though the negative health effects of radium were already known. The girls struggled to get legal representation or medical protections when they realized the harmful effects of radium on their bodies, and many of them died with their names tainted by accusations of syphilis.

The effects of the radium girls trial connect to broader trends of the 1920s, and beyond. While they related to the “new woman,” they also showcased how the lives of these working women often weren’t as free or as glamorous as the idealized perception of them was. They worked in poor conditions, for an unequal pay to male counterparts, and in the case of the radium girls, they died with their reputations tainted and in gruesome or painful ways. The consumption and advertisement of radium despite the known negative effects of the substance shows the poor morals of maybe people who just wanted to profit off of the easily consumable glowing substance. Finally, even though it was years after their trial occurred, the radium girls’ suffering helped regulate radiation exposure and bring awareness to women’s rights in the workplace. The radium girls, even though they struggled significantly during their lives, are remembered and given the attention they deserve in their death as they are credited with bringing to the public eye the harmful effects of radium.

Suggested Further Reading

Coursey, Bert M. “The National Bureau of Standards and the Radium Dial Painters.” Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 14 Feb. 2022, nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/126/jres.126.051.pdf. 

Warren, Christian. “Toxic Purity: The Progressive Era Origins of America’s Lead Paint Poisoning Epidemic.” The Business History Review 73, no. 4 (1999): 705–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/3116131.

Bibliography

“Amelia Malia ‘Mollie’ Maggia (1896-1922).” Find a Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/99916653/amelia_malia-maggia. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025. 

Balkansky, Arlene. “Radium Girls: Living Dead Women: Headlines & Heroes.” The Library of Congress, March 19, 2019. Accessed February 18, 2025. https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2019/03/radium-girls-living-dead-women/. 

Cowen, Ron. “New Jersey’s ‘Radium Girls’ and the NIST-Trained Scientist Who Came to Their Aid.” NIST, Ron Cowen, 24 Jan. 2025, www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/new-jerseys-radium-girls-and-nist-trained-scientist-who-came-their-aid. 

Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024. 

Elgert, Patrick. “Radium: A Medical Treatment of the Early 20th Century.” Historical Medical Library. Accessed February 18, 2025. https://histmed.collegeofphysicians.org/for-students/radium/. 

Fry, Shirley A. “Studies of U.S. Radium Dial Workers: An Epidemiological Classic.” Radiation Research 150, no. 5 (1998), S23. https://doi.org/10.2307/3579805.

“Government Moves To Protect Women in Radium Work” The Courier News, (Bridgewater, NJ), December 24, 1928, p. 15.

Hunt, Vilma R. “A Brief History of Women Workers and Hazards in the Workplace.” Feminist Studies 5, no. 2 (1979). https://doi.org/10.2307/3177594.

Moore, Kate. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women. Naperville, ILL: Sourcebooks, Inc, 2016.

“Once Beautiful Blonde Aged By Radium Poison: Edna Hussman, DOOMED” Evening Courier, (Camden, NJ), May 23, 1928.

“Radium Victim’s Bones Glistened Says Physician” The Bayonne Times, (Bayonne, NJ), May 25, 1928, p. 2. 

“Radium Victim Tells How She Awaits Doom” Courier-Post, (Camden, NJ), May 22, 1928, p. 2. 

“Try ‘n Get It” Evening Courier, (Camden, NJ), May 3, 1928, p. 8. 

1. Vilma R. Hunt. “A Brief History of Women Workers and Hazards in the Workplace.” Feminist Studies 5, no. 2 (1979), 281. ︎
2. Arlene Balkansky. “Radium Girls: Living Dead Women: Headlines & Heroes.” The Library of Congress, March 19, 2019. Accessed February 18, 2025.
   
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3. “Radium Victim’s Bones Glistened Says Physician” The Bayonne Times, (Bayonne, NJ), May  25, 1928, p. 2.
   
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4. “Radium Victim Tells How She Awaits Doom” Courier-Post, (Camden, NJ), May 22, 1928, p. 2. 
   
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5. “Once Beautiful Blonde Aged By Radium Poison: Edna Hussman, DOOMED” Evening Courier, (Camden, NJ), May 23, 1928.
   
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6. Shirley A. Fry “Studies of U.S. Radium Dial Workers: An Epidemiological Classic.” Radiation Research 150, no. 5 (1998), S23.
   
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7. “Try ‘n Get It” Evening Courier, (Camden, NJ), May 3, 1928, p. 8. 
   
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8. Lynn Dumenil. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. United States: Hill and Wang, 2024, 117. 
   
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9. Dumenil, 126. ︎
10. Hunt, 280. ︎
11. Hunt, 280. ︎
12. Hunt, 281. ︎
13. “Government Moves To Protect Women in Radium Work” The Courier News, (Bridgewater, NJ), December 24, 1928, p. 15.
    
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14. Hunt, 282. ︎
15. Hunt, 282. ︎

hannahsteinlauf

Hannah Steinlauf is a senior history major with a minor in museum and exhibition studies at Ramapo College. She is a student research aide for the Jane Addams Papers Project. She is a member of the Ramapo College Dance Company and Tri Sigma. Hannah is going to attend Trinity College Dublin for a masters degree in Public History after graduation.