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Primary sourcePhotographc. 1898-1904

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

c. 1898-1904

A lifetime photograph showing Marie and Pierre Curie at work among their apparatus in the makeshift laboratory where they discovered radium and polonium.

Shows Marie Curie working at the bench in the laboratory where she and Pierre discovered radium and polonium.

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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 of Marie and Pierre Curie in their laboratory, rue Lhomond, c. 1898-1904. Published on the cover of Le Radium, January 1904. Musée Curie, Paris.

About this source

What it is

This photograph shows Marie and Pierre Curie working in their laboratory on rue Lhomond, taken around the time they were discovering radium and polonium. It was printed on the cover of the magazine Le Radium in January 1904 and is now held by the Musée Curie in Paris.

Why it matters

The image captures the real conditions in which the Curies made some of the most important discoveries in modern physics and chemistry: a cramped, improvised space rather than a grand laboratory. It shows Marie Curie as an active scientist at the bench, not just a name in a textbook.

Look closer

  • What does the setting tell you about the resources scientists had at the time?
  • Who is shown in the photograph, and what might each person be doing?
  • Why might a magazine have chosen to print this photograph on its cover?

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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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

Black-and-white photograph of a woman with hair pinned up, wearing a long dark dress with a high lace-trimmed collar, standing beside laboratory apparatus in a room with a wooden table, a wall clock, and glass equipment. A blurred figure stands in the background.Photograph

Primary source

Marie Curie, Portrait Photograph

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