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]

Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum
Established1967
Location16 Freta Street (permanent)
5 Freta Street (temporary)
Warsaw, Poland
TypeBiographical museum
Websiteen.muzeum-msc.pl
Birthplace mural, 2011 (100th anniversary of 2nd Nobel Prize): infant Maria holds test tube from which emanate the elements Maria will discover: polonium, radium.
A Museum exhibition

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.[1]

Due to renovation, in December 2014 the museum was temporarily moved to 5 Freta Street.

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.[1]

The museum is housed in an 18th-century apartment building (the Łyszkiewicz apartment building) at Freta Street (Polish: ulica Freta) 16 in Warsaw's "New Town". The building has been rebuilt several times. After Maria Skłodowska-Curie's death in 1934, a plaque was attached to the building, commemorating her birth there and her epochal scientific discoveries. During the 1944 Warsaw Uprising the building was deliberately demolished by the German forces, but the plaque survived and was put back after the building was rebuilt after World War II.[1]

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.[1]

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.[1]

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.[1]

The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, and closed on Mondays and Polish national holidays. Information may be obtained by email at muzeum.msc@neostrada.pl.[1]

See also

Notes
  1. 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).

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