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The American editor and journalist Marie Mattingly Meloney first met Madame
Curie in May 1920 when she went to interview her at the Radium Institute of the
Sorbonne. When Mrs. Meloney learned that the scientist had no radium with which
to carry on her experiments, she founded the Marie Curie Radium Fund and raised
over $100,000 from private donations for the purchase of one gram of the
precious element. Curie's visit to the United States was arranged by Mrs.
Meloney for May and June of 1921 so that the scientist could personally receive
the radium from President Harding at a White House reception. During her stay,
Curie attended dinners and receptions in her honor and visited colleges and
universities, as well as such tourist attractions as the Grand Canyon and
Niagara Falls. A few days after her return to France, she sent this manuscript
of her account of the visit to Mrs. Meloney for publication in The Delineator.
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