Report on the Thonon-les-Bains Exhibition

The exhibition “The Joliot-Curie Family: Between Science and Society” was held from July 20 to August 20, 2024, at the media library (Cultural Center of La Visitation) in Thonon-les-Bains. The day after the setup—on Saturday, July 20—it was officially inaugurated at 11:00 a.m. in the presence of Christophe Arminjon, Mayor of Thonon, and the Deputy Mayor for Culture. Members of the Rotary Club Évian-Thonon, including those who supported me in organizing the event, also attended.

Left: Exhibition opening (Christophe Arminjon and Yves Jacquot).
Right: General view of the exhibition at the La Visitation media library in Thonon-les-Bains.s

The exhibition featured the 12 panels of the traveling exhibition developed by the Curie-Joliot-Curie Association and the Curie Museum, a poster detailing Marie Curie’s stay in Thonon in July 1912, and four display cases. One case was dedicated to Marie Curie and contained various pieces of chemistry glassware and historical documents. The three remaining cases focused respectively on the discovery of the neutron, the positron, and artificial radioactivity.

Panel and display case dedicated to Marie Curie.

Thanks to an active publicity campaign led by the City of Thonon-les-Bains, the media library, the Rotary Club Évian-Thonon, and local newspapers, the exhibition attracted around 500 visitors. During the event, brochures about the Curie Museum and the Curie-Joliot-Curie Association were made available to the public. Approximately 50 museum brochures and 200 ACJC brochures were taken by visitors.

On August 13, at 3:30 p.m., a commemorative plaque honoring Marie Curie was unveiled on the wall of what was, in 1912, the “Pension des Terrasses,” located at the Port de Rives, where she stayed that July. This public inauguration took place in the presence of the Mayor of Thonon.

Commemorative plaque honoring Marie Curie (funded by the Rotary Club Évian-Thonon)

At the end of the inauguration, the Mayor of Thonon announced that one of the town’s streets would be renamed Rue Marie Curie. This street leads directly to the town hall. That same day, at 6:00 p.m., I gave a 1 hour and 15 minute lecture on the scientific journey of the Curie–Joliot-Curie family. The event was attended by around 120 people. Among the audience was Madame Pierre Radvanyi, who happened to be on vacation in a nearby village.

In summary, this event attracted a large audience and led to the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in honor of Marie Curie, as well as the renaming of a street in the town. The city of Thonon was particularly receptive to the organization of this exhibition, as it helped revive a forgotten chapter of its history and reaffirm the family’s ties to the Haute-Savoie region, where Marie Curie passed away exactly 90 years ago—in Sancellemoz, Passy.

Yves Jacquot