1867–1934 · Scientists

Marie Curie signature

Polish-French physicist and chemist, 1867–1934

Inspired by Marie Curie’s signature

A rendering in a modern handwriting font, made for this page. It is not the real signature; see where to view the original below. Where to see the original ↓Style: Sacramento, slant 4°

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Sacramento · 4°

Who Marie Curie was

Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw in 1867 and moved to Paris in 1891 to study at the Sorbonne. She married the physicist Pierre Curie in 1895 and with him discovered polonium and radium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, in physics in 1903, and remains the only person to have won Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, adding chemistry in 1911. She died in 1934.

In France she became Marie Curie, but she never gave up her Polish identity, and her signatures reflect both.

The story of the signature

In French letters and documents she commonly signed “M. Curie”. When writing in Polish she also used her maiden name, Skłodowska, alongside Curie, as in a 1920 letter preserved by a correspondent’s family. She named the first element she and Pierre discovered, polonium, after Poland.

Her laboratory notebooks from the years of work on radium are among the most unusual manuscripts anywhere. They are reported to remain radioactive, and are kept by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in lead-lined boxes; readers who wish to consult them are reported to need protective equipment and to sign a liability waiver. Some pages are also known from photographs held by the Wellcome Collection in London.

Her handwriting in those notebooks is a working scientist’s hand: compact, direct and full of numbers, with little decoration.

What makes it distinctive

Initial plus surname

“M. Curie”, short, practical and the same in French and English.

Two names

Curie in French contexts, with her Polish maiden name Skłodowska added when she wrote in Polish.

No ornament

A plain, functional signature that matches the businesslike hand of her notebooks.

Compact letterforms

Small, even writing made for filling notebook pages with measurements.

How to give your signature a similar feel

In the Type tab of the signature generator, try Sacramento for a thin monoline signature, with a Slant around 4°.
If you have a birth name and a married or adopted name, consider a double-barrelled signature for some uses, as Skłodowska-Curie did.
Keep it plain: initial plus surname, no underline. It works on lab reports, forms and contracts alike.
Choose black or dark blue ink and save the result as a transparent PNG to drop into documents.

Where to see the original

These links lead to archives, libraries, museums and Wikimedia Commons.

Questions about Marie Curie’s signature

How did Marie Curie sign her name?

Often “M. Curie” in French contexts. When writing in Polish she also used her maiden name, Skłodowska.

Are Marie Curie’s notebooks really radioactive?

They are widely reported to be, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France keeps them in lead-lined boxes with special conditions for readers.

Why is polonium called polonium?

Marie and Pierre Curie named it in 1898 after Poland, her homeland, which was then partitioned between neighbouring empires.