“The Radium Dial Painters: Their Fatal Brush with Death”

 

The April public meeting of the Woman’s Club of Woodbury will take place on Monday, April 1, at 12:30 pm at the Emergency Services Building, Orenaug Firehouse, 25 Quassak Road in Woodbury. Colleen Nicastro, director of Interpretation for the American Clock & Watch Museum, will be our speaker. No charge for admission, but reservations are necessary. Please call 203-263-3623 to reserve a space.

 Learn about the Radium Girls—the American women of the 1920s who worked as radium dial painters for the watch industry. Their heroic story became the subject of the popular film named after them and The New York Times best-seller Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore.

Poisoned by the radioactive paint they worked with, the Radium Girls faced horrendous health issues and even death. When their pleas for help were flatly denied by management in the name of profits, they took their fight all the way to the Supreme Court, eventually prevailing. Unfortunately, many of them did not live to see that day. Yet, the Radium Girls’ courageous battle has had a significant impact, improving the conditions for workers across the country and across the decades, up to today.

Colleen Nicastro is the Director of Interpretation at the American Clock & Watch Museum in Bristol, CT, which celebrates the innovation and artistry of clock and watchmaking. During her 20 years at the museum, Colleen has taken a special interest in the Radium Girls, placing them within their historical context as women workers as well as within the larger context of the clock and watch industry. Colleen also serves on the Advisory Board of the Women & Girls Fund of the Main Street Community Foundation and is the Chair of the Historic District Commission in Bristol. She brings many years of historical work to the topic “The Radium Dial Painters: Their Fatal Brush with Death.”

A members-only General Meeting will precede the program. Prospective members are welcome! Visit us on Facebook at Woman’s Club of Woodbury – the one in CT for information.