Today our guest, Erin Elizabeth Becker, recounts the story of her great grandmother, Marion Murdoch O’Hara, who worked for the US Radium Corporation in New York City. Through genealogical and historical research, Erin discovered a powerful and unforgettable member of her family who was tied to a dark chapter of American history.  

In the 1920s, many young women eagerly signed up to work as “radium girls” in well-paying positions appplying radium-tinged paint to comercial items. The radium made watch hands and clock faces glow in the dark but it was also a sinister threat, leading to sickness and death for many of those who worked with it unprotected.  Hear more about the radium girls’ struggle for justice in today’s episode.

Further Research

• Great Grandma Barrett was a Shining Woman
• Radium Girls by Kate Moore (Find in a Library via WorldCat)
• Radium Girls (2018) IMDB
• The Radium Girls (Atomic Heritage Foundation)
• Audio Footnote
  Episode 88: Erin Elizabeth Becker