Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist who helped conduct research on radioactivity. She discovered chemical elements such as Radium and Polonium. Curie could not afford the price of Radium for her research due to the increase in price. During an interview in 1920 by a journalist, Marie Mattingly Meloney, it was mentioned that Curie could not move forward with her research so Meloney helped her by launching a campaign to raise $100,000 to purchase a gram of radium for Curie’s use at the Radium Institution in Paris. 

In 1921 Curie and her two daughters came to the U.S - On May 20th, she visited the White House because President Harding gave Curie a certificate representing the donation from the MARIE CURIE RADIUM Fund committee.