PAST AMP TALKS
Thank you to our 2024 event sponsors: The Magnifico Family, NW Realty, and Torrington Savings Bank.
Radium Girls: The Fascinating History Behind the Best-Seller and Film
Colleen Nicastro, Director of Interpretation for the American Clock & Watch Museum
On March 16, AMP visitors learned more about the Radium Girls—the American women of the 1920s who worked as radium dial painters for the watch industry. Their heroic story became the subject of the popular film named after them and The New York Times best-seller Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore.
Poisoned by the radioactive paint they worked with, the Radium Girls faced horrendous health issues and even death. When their pleas for help were flatly denied by management in the name of profits, they took their fight all the way to the Supreme Court, eventually prevailing. Unfortunately, many of them did not live to see that day. Yet, the Radium Girls’ courageous battle has had a significant impact, improving the conditions for workers across the country and across the decades, up to today.
About the Speaker
Colleen Nicastro is the Director of Interpretation at the American Clock & Watch Museum in Bristol, CT, which celebrates the innovation and artistry of clock and watchmaking. During her 20 years at the museum, Colleen has taken a special interest in the Radium Girls, placing them within their historical context as women workers as well as within the larger context of the clock and watch industry. Colleen also serves on the Advisory Board of the Women & Girls Fund of the Main Street Community Foundation and is the Chair of the Historic District Commission in Bristol. She brings many years of historical work to the topic “The Radium Dial Painters: Their Fatal Brush with Death.”
“An Inconvenient Cop”
Author Edwin Raymond: Book Signing & Presentation
The American Mural Project (AMP) hosted critically acclaimed author Edwin Raymond, former NYPD lieutenant, on Saturday, February 24 for a discussion and book signing. Raymond is the author of An Inconvenient Cop: My Fight to Change Policing in America. He is depicted prominently in his former role as a police officer in AMP’s mural of workers, on permanent exhibit in Winsted, CT. During the evening’s presentation, he was joined by the mural artist, Ellen Griesedieck.
About the Author
Edwin Raymond, a fifteen-year veteran of the New York Police Department, is one of the nation’s leading voices on criminal justice reform. He has received numerous accolades, including a Commanding Officer’s Award for exceptional duty, an NAACP Courage and Leadership Award,an International Documentary Association’s Courage Under Fire Award, and a Doc Star of the Month Award.
Raymond’s struggle, as one of the “NYPD 12” whistleblowers, is also part of the Emmy award-winning documentary Crime + Punishment. The NYPD-12 officers worked bravely and tirelessly to eliminate the racist quota system in the police department.
