The National Library of France
The National Library of France holds part of the Curie archives
Editorial review 2026
It holds, for example, the original laboratory notebooks of Pierre and Marie Curie.
In 2025–2026, it decided to present some of them to the public at the BnF Museum.
Measurements were carried out on all the documents held by the library, showing that residual radium contamination still exists.
Measurement of the notebooks with an alpha probe. The pages of the notebooks that were handled still bear traces of fingers contaminated with radium. The notebook documenting the discovery of polonium and radium is the most radioactive. This is explained by the specific activity of the materials involved. Indeed, it takes 3 tonnes of uranium-238 to reach an activity of 37 GBq (formerly 1 curie). Only 1 gram of radium-226 is required to reach the same activity. Products with shorter half-lives are more contaminating. © Marc Ammerich
The museum therefore presents the notebooks to the public
Laboratory notebooks belonging to Pierre and Marie Curie were exhibited in the museum of the National Library of France.
To ensure that visitors were not exposed, we carried out dose-equivalent rate measurements as well as contamination measurements when these notebooks were removed from display. © BNF
And to ensure that visitors are not exposed, measurements were also carried out in front of the display cases.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pC-PnkGZxiA
The BnF also holds other works from the Curie family in its collections, including the original diary notebook of Madame Curie. Marc AMMERICH, who carried out the measurements on the notebooks and who held Madame Curie’s diary notebook in his hands, told us: “It is impossible not to feel a tear forming in the corner of your eye. For people who work in this field, it is History with a capital H that we are holding in our hands.”
It should be noted that you can access a number of these works, as they have been digitized.