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UMDNJ Libraries-Special Collections Department
Stanley S. Bergen, Jr., MD University Archives
University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
October 2001
Revised, June 2003
01-58
History
"From 1917 to 1926, the U.S. Radium Corporation was located at the intersection of
High and Alden Streets in Orange, New Jersey. Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky and Dr. George S. Willis founded the company in 1917. The primary activity
at the U.S. Radium Corporation was the extraction and purification of radium from carnotite ore to produce luminous paints, which were produced
under the brand name Undark. The plant employed over a hundred workers, mainly women, to paint radium lighted watches and instruments.
During World War I, the U.S. Radium Corporation was a major supplier of luminous watches
to the military. However, a major setback for the Corporation occurred when a number of dial painters died from what appeared to be a variety
of unrelated health causes. It was later learned that the deaths were due to radiation contamination associated with exposure to radium, one
of the prime ingredients of the luminescent paint. A major route of exposure was ingestion, as the dial painters used their mouths to form
a point on the radium-tainted paintbrushes, enabling them to paint the small numbers on the watches."
(Source: Revised Work Plan, Volume 1 of 2, U.S. Radium Site, City or Orange, Essex County,
New Jersey. Remedial Planning Activities at Selected Uncontrolled Hazardous Substance Disposal Sites USEPA Region II (NY, NJ, PR, VI).
White Plains, NY: Malcom Pirnie, Inc., 1990, pp. 2-4 to 2-5.)
Harrison S. Martland, MD (1883-1954), chief medical examiner for Essex County, New Jersey,
was instrumental in recognizing the cause of death in the dial painters. Dr. Martland measured the radioactivity in dial painters' bodies and
in 1925, published the information connecting their bone disease and aplastic anemias with radium.
Scope and Content Note
The records of the U.S. Radium Corporation of East Orange, New Jersey consist of eighteen reels of 35mm microfilm, dating 1917
to the circa 1940s. The files contain correspondence, reports, published articles, certificates, insurance and legal files, and other records
documenting the company's business activities and investigations into the contamination of its female radium dial painters by radioluminous
paint. Of particular note, are legal files of the case, La Porte vs. US Radium (1934). The records are not in any discernible order.
A duplicate set of microfilm is available for Interlibrary Loan requests.
In December 2002, a United States Air Force researcher contacted the Special Collections
Department to request the loan of the microfilm for a research project he was conducting. The outcome of this request was an agreement made
with Distor, Inc. to scan the microfilm to create pdf files of the textual images and a searchable database using LaserFicheŽ software. As part
of the project, a Table of Contents to the pdf files was also created. It provides additional subject insight to the microfilm. This project
was completed in spring 2003. The pdf files and proprietary software database may only be rearched in-house in the department.
In addition to the microfilm, the collection consists of data abstracted from the microfilm by Dr. Claudia Clark.
For a related collection, see the Harrison S. Martland, MD Papers, 1905-1954 (MC/1).
Provenance
Claudia Clark, Ph.D. donated the collection to UMDNJ-Special Collection on 14 June 2001.
The original microfilm was made at Argonne National Laboratory sometime between 1969 and 1981 from documents furnished Argonne for research
purposes by U.S. Radium Corp. The records were contaminated by radium, and the originals were disposed of as contaminated waste.
Dr. Clark was furnished with a copy of the microfilm when she was supported by Argonne's Department
of Educational Programs to work on Radium Dial Painter Study records as part of her Ph.D. thesis. This microfilm set was Dr. Clark's to keep.
The original microfilm may still be at Argonne National Laboratory.
For additional information about the Radium Dial Painters, see Dr. Clark's book, Radium Girls:
Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).
Inventory
18 Reels 35mm microfilm (original duplicate).
18 Reels 35mm microfilm (ILL duplicate).
Box
Folder
Contents
1
1
Claudia Clark's Research Data from Microfilm (notebook).
2
Claudia Clark's Research Data from Microfilm.
3
Claudia Clark's Research Data from Microfilm. Re: Chemists & Chemical Processes.
4
Claudia Clark's Research Data from Microfilm. Re: U.S. Radium Corp. Physical Plant.
Table of Contents to Pdf Files on Special Collections Web Site
Summary Roll 1
Page 2 Begin roll #1
Page 3 Correspondence in Letters and Documents of the Radium
Plant
Page 13 Early History-Lawsuits Letters and Summaries on Patients
Page 34 Certificates of Preparation Quantity of Radium Added to
Mixtures
Page 60 Companies Radium Supplied over the Years
Page 70 Sales of IV Radium
Page 74 Certificates
Page 223 Companies Radium Supplied
Page 239 Radium Shipments-On How Much was Shipped
Page 245 Certificates
Page 251 Miscellaneous
Page 261 Certificates
Page 279 Miscellaneous
Page 288 Letters for Mr. H.H., Attorney
Page 293 Certificates
Page 358 Miscellaneous
Page 362 Certificates
Page 428 Report on 10 Patients (Published)
Page 502 Cases Filing a Suit
Page 512 Literature and Analysis on Radium
Page 573 End of Roll #1
Summary Roll 2
Page 5 Begin roll #2
Page 7 Spas & Pertinent Medical Articles and Books
Page 13 Bancroft Hall
Page 45 Radiosinter Part 21
Page 62 Radio Activity of the Mineral Waters of Hot Springs, VA
Page 79 Effects & Uses of the Radio Activity of Hot Springs National
Park, Arkansas
Page 85 Some Newer Developments In Endocrine Therapy
Page 109 Radium Insurance Correspondence
Page 118 The Radium Therapist - Articles and Books
Page 124 Insurance Correspondence
Page 129 Definite Replies
Page 152 Correspondence Internal Radium
Page 179 Reports Article One
Page 191 List of References
Page 212 X Rays of Barker's Teeth
Page 237 Oil Burners
Page 265 Bids and Supplies
Page 277 Zinc
Page 310 Dr. Hopkins
Page 339 Reports on Effects of Organs
Page 375 The Therapeutic Value-Books and Articles
Page 381 Bancroft Hall
Page 429 Radio Activity of the Mineral Waters of Hot Springs, Warm
Springs, Healing Springs in Hot Springs, VA
Page 446 Effects & Uses on the Treatment of Diseases
Page 476 Early Literature
Page 500 Written Documentation on Patients
Page 520 Radium Institute of New York-Articles and Documentation
Page 539 Reports of Rutherford
Page 543 The Biokinetics of the Blood
Page 548 The Stability of Atoms
Page 584 The Disintegration of Elements by a Particle
Page 622 John Dale and Sons Book
Page 671 Perkin Medal Award
Page 691 The Relation Between the Alpha Ray ...
Page 760 On the Physical Principles of the Alpha Ray
Page 766 End of Roll #2
Summary Roll 3
Page 4 Begin Roll #3
Page 6 Letters and Articles of Radioactive Families
Page 32 Radio and Radio-Activity, Books and Articles
Page 60 Home Experiences on the Extraction of Radium
Page 86 Correspondence
Page 101 The Detection, Estimation and Elimination of Radium in
Living Persons
Page 109 Parathormone in the Treatment of Radium Poisoning
Page 159 Results of Examination of the Organs
Page 285 Correspondence
Page 318 Partition Factor Br & Cl
Page 326 Co-Precipitation of Radium & Barium Sulfates
Page 334 The Concentration of Radium & Mesothorium by Fractional
Crystallization
Page 342 Correspondence, Leman & Buckley
Page 362 I-B German Inquiries Msth. 1927
Page 378 Msth. I-C Program 1919 Dr. Sochocky
Page 395 Bisulphate Method for Radium Original Manuscripts
Page 412 Detection & Elimination of Radium in Living Persons Given
Radium Chloride Internally II
Page 417 End of Roll #3
Summary Roll 4
Page 4 Begin Roll 4
Page 6 Copies of Original Information Elgin Hospital
Page 26 Patient Applications
Page 40 United States Patent Office
Page 59 Mesothorivn NBS Certificates and Equivalence of Msth.
Page 86 Schlundt, Barker Correspondence on Reclaiming of Radium
& Msth. From Zinc Sulphide