PHYSICS: Marie Curie 1903 - Edison, NJ
N 40° 32.915 W 074° 20.447
18T E 555817 N 4488856
Bas-relief portrait bust of Nobel Peace Prize winner Marie Curie. located in Roosevelt Park in front of the police station.
Waymark Code: WM9M8V
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 09/02/2010
Views: 10
This is actually the second one of these bas relief monuments made for Marie Curie. This one is bronze with the base made of concrete, brick and mortar. The sculpture is approximately 22 x 18 x 3 in and the base is approximately 39 x 37 x 12 in. The monument is in good condition but the bronze has lost some of its luster.
This is a nice brick "wall" with a bronze picture of Marie Curie in the center. There is an inscription on the rear. The artists are Slawomir Mielesko, sculptor and Henry Koszalka, sculptor. To the rear of all this is a tree, dedicated to her, and then another marker which tells about the dedicated tree.
Inscription
The relief portrait is in the shape of an oval and there is writing which wraps around the inner perimeter of the bronze oval. The top arch reads Polish Nobel Laureate. The bottom curve reads Maria Curie Sklodowska. Under the relief bust are the dates 1867 - 1934.
There is a plaque on the reverse of the monument. It reads: POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS/NEW JERSEY DIVISION/REDEDICATION BAS-RELIEF/OF/MARIE CURIE-SKLODOWSKA/AUGUST 8, 1993/EDISON, NEW JERSEY/HON. STEPHEN "PETE" DALINA-FREEHOLDER/DIR. HENRY KOSZALKA-PAC./GOD PARENTS: HON. REINHOLD SMYCZEK-PAC./MARIA KOPROWICZ-PAC./FELIKS S. BRUKS/PRESIDENT, PAC-N.J. unsigned
Remarks
The monument commemorates Polish scientist Marie Curie-Sklodowska and replaces an earlier monument, which had fallen into disrepair. Slawomir Mielesko was commissioned to do the casting; Henry Koszalka was responsible for the bas-relief stand. IAS files contain a related article from Perth Amboy Gazette, Aug. 12, 1993. More information about the sculpture can be obtained from VP Polish-American Congress, 177 Broadway, Clark, New Jersey. SOURCE
Did You Know??
Marie Sklodowska Curie was a physicist and chemist of Polish upbringing and subsequent French citizenship. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity and the first person honored with not one but TWO Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 was divided, one half awarded to Antoine Henri Becquerel "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity",the other half jointly to Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, née Sklodowska "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel".
SOURCE listed in second website field below