Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Curie Museum is housed in the Curie Pavilion, designed by architect Henri-Paul Nénot (1853–1934) in the heart of the Curie Campus in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, near the Pantheon where Pierre and Marie Curie have been resting since 1995. This building, classified as a historic monument in November 2024 after a threat of demolition, houses a permanent exhibition space and an archive centre. It traces the history of radioactivity and its medical applications, including radiotherapy, while preserving Marie Curie's personal office and laboratory, direct testimonies of his work between 1914 and 1934.

Inaugurated in July 1914 as the Radium Institute, the site consisted of two pavilions: the Pasteur Pavilion, dedicated to biological research on rays (led by Claudus Regaud), and the Curie Pavilion, dedicated to radiation physics and chemistry under the direction of Marie Curie. The latter, under the supervision of the University of Paris, became the heart of the future museum. After the death of Frédéric Joliot in 1958, the directors of the laboratory decided to keep his office intact, successively occupied by Marie Curie, André Debierne, Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot.

The museum's collections include scientific instruments used between 1910 and 1960, family archives (Curie and Joliot-Curie), and objects illustrating the first uses of radioactivity. The museum was gradually structured: in 1964, windows exhibited the apparatus of the 1930s; In 1967, Marie Curie's office and laboratory were opened to the public. In 1995, a renovation marked the 75th anniversary of the Curie Foundation and the transfer of the ashes from the Curie to the Pantheon. Finally, the legacy of Eve Curie in 2007 allowed a major renovation, completed in 2012.

The Curie campus, where the museum is located, focuses several prestigious scientific institutions, such as the École nationale supérieure de chimie de Paris or the Henri-Poincaré Institute. Served by public transport (RER B, metro line 7), it symbolizes the French scientific heritage of the 20th century, between historical memory and contemporary research. The ranking of 2024 preserved this heritage in the face of a controversial demolition project.

Collection

Constitué d'un espace d'exposition permanente et d'un centre d'archives, il propose au public de découvrir l'histoire de la découverte de la radioactivité et de ses premières applications médicales avec la radiothérapie. Ce musée est un lieu de mémoire et de connaissances sur l'histoire des sciences.

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