Maria Skłodowska's Formative Years: Warsaw to Scientific Ambition

Maria Skłodowska's Formative Years in Warsaw

Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, on November 7, 1867. She was the fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers, Bronisława née Boguska, and Władysław Skłodowski. Maria's elder siblings were Zofia (born 1862, nicknamed Zosia), Józef (born 1863, nicknamed Józio), Bronisława (born 1865, nicknamed Bronia), and Helena (born 1866, nicknamed Hela).^[13][14][15]

A Legacy of Patriotism and Hardship

On both paternal and maternal sides, the family had lost their property and fortunes through patriotic involvement in Polish national uprisings aimed at restoring Poland's independence, the most recent being the January Uprising of 1863–65.^[16] This condemned the subsequent generation, including Maria and her elder siblings, to a difficult struggle to succeed in life.^[16] Maria's paternal grandfather, Józef Skłodowski, had been a respected teacher in Lublin, where he taught the young Bolesław Prus, who would later become a leading figure in Polish literature.^[17][18]

Parental Influence and Personal Tragedies

Władysław Skłodowski taught mathematics and physics—subjects Maria would later pursue—and was also director of two Warsaw gymnasia for boys. After Russian authorities eliminated laboratory instruction from Polish schools, he brought much of the laboratory equipment home and instructed his children in its use.^[14] He was eventually fired by his Russian supervisors for pro-Polish sentiments and forced to take lower-paying posts. The family also lost money on a bad investment and eventually chose to supplement their income by lodging boys in their home.^[14]

Maria's mother, Bronisława, operated a prestigious Warsaw boarding school for girls; she resigned from the position after Maria was born.^[14] She died of tuberculosis in May 1878, when Maria was ten.^[14] Less than three years earlier, Maria's oldest sibling, Zofia, had died of typhus contracted from a boarder.^[14] Maria's father was an atheist; her mother, a devout Catholic.^[19] The deaths of Maria's mother and sister caused her to abandon Catholicism and become agnostic.^[20]

Early Education and the Flying University

At ten years old, Maria began attending J. Sikorska's boarding school. Subsequently, she attended a gymnasium for girls, graduating on June 12, 1883, with a gold medal.^[13] After a collapse, possibly due to depression,^[14] she spent the following year in the countryside with her father's relatives, and the next year with her father in Warsaw, where she tutored.^[13] Unable to enroll in a regular institution of higher education because she was a woman, Maria and her sister Bronisława became involved with the clandestine Flying University (sometimes translated as Floating University), a Polish patriotic institution of higher learning that admitted women.^[13][14]