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Primary sourcePhotographc. 1900

Marie and Pierre Curie in their laboratory

c. 1900

A photograph of about 1900 showing Marie and Pierre Curie working together in their Paris laboratory.

This photograph shows Marie Curie herself at work in her laboratory alongside Pierre Curie.

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Black-and-white photograph of a dim laboratory. A woman with hair pulled back, wearing a dark striped dress, holds a small glass vessel at a cluttered lab bench. A bearded man with a white collar stands beside her in profile, looking toward her. Tall windows are behind them.
Marie and Pierre Curie in their laboratory, Paris, c. 1900. Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom.

About this source

What it is

This black-and-white photograph, dated around 1900, shows Professor Pierre Curie and Madame Marie Curie at work in their laboratory in Paris. Marie Curie is shown holding a small glass vessel at a cluttered lab bench, with Pierre Curie standing beside her. It is held by the Wellcome Collection.

Why it matters

This image documents the working partnership between Marie and Pierre Curie during the period of their pioneering research into radioactivity. It gives a rare direct view of the conditions in which this famous scientific collaboration took place, showing two scientists sharing the same bench and tools.

Look closer

  • What does the setting of the laboratory tell you about scientific work at this time?
  • How are Marie and Pierre Curie positioned in the photograph, and what might that suggest about their roles?
  • Why might this photograph have been taken and kept?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Marie Curie on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Cover of the January 1904 issue of the magazine Le Radium, showing a printed masthead and a photograph captioned Le Laboratoire de la Rue Lhomond. The photo shows two men and a seated woman among laboratory equipment and glassware, with the caption M. & Mme Curie below.Photograph

Primary source

Photograph of Pierre and Marie Curie in their Laboratory, rue Lhomond

c. 1898-1904

Title page of the 1904 second edition of Recherches sur les substances radioactives by Madame Sklodowska Curie, a thesis presented at the Faculté des Sciences de Paris. Published in Paris by Gauthier-Villars. Handwritten number 5 and a note appear in the top right corner.Book

Primary source

Recherches sur les substances radioactives

Marie Curie · 1904

Document

Primary source

Rayons émis par les composés de l'uranium et du thorium

Marie Curie · 12 April 1898

A museum display case showing a wooden mahogany box with its lid open and a round metal radium container inside, beside a separate lidded metal canister with a brass knob, a key on a chain, and a small cluster of tubes on the glass base.Artifact

Primary source

International Radium Standard

Marie Curie · 1911

Black-and-white photograph of a clear glass vessel with a flared conical bowl, a pouring spout on the left rim, and a short stem on a flat circular foot, set against a plain light background.Artifact

Primary source

Glass beaker used for the first radium salt solution

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