by Cody Berry, Special Collections Assistant

Because of the recent success of films such as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Radium Girls on Netflix, we thought it would be interesting to investigate Dr. Gann Jr’s work with radium. Dr. Dewell Gann Jr (1890-1960) is credited as the man who introduced the use of radium to Arkansas in 1916.[1] Radium was first discovered and isolated by Marie and Pierre Curie. In 1902, the Curies first isolated radium chloride from a uranium-rich mineral and ore now known as “uranite.”[2] Radium has a half-life of 1600 years and a radioactivity level about three thousand times higher than uranium.

In 1904, John MacLeod, a physician at Charing Cross Hospital in London, England, developed radium applicators for the treatment of internal cancers, which shrank tumors. Radium was used to treat several conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, rheumatism, gout, and tuberculosis.[3] Despite being used for so many conditions, radium was still a very dangerous material, and it was incredibly valuable as well. According to the Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, Dr. Gann Jr. dropped a single grain of radium, worth $5,000, and reportedly “the only radium in Arkansas,” in the sewer system of the Banker’s Trust Company building in Little Rock.[4]

The sample of radium in question was “contained in a tube about the size of half a match.” It was being used to treat a charity patient who was suffering with a tumor. Some of the building’s plumbing had to be torn out to recover the tiny grain of radium.[5] Despite that experience, Dr. Gann Jr kept using radium to treat his patients. According to Arlene Hyten Rainey, she and her mother were visiting the Ganns one day when Dr. Gann Jr. noticed a blemish on her mother’s skin. Thinking this was skin cancer, he asked his wife, Agnes, to retrieve some radium from their bathroom to treat Mrs. Hyten. After it was applied to Mrs. Hyten’s skin, Mrs. Gann placed the radium back in its container which presumably was lead lined.[6]

Despite the dangers of prolonged exposure to radium, the federal government, at the time, did very little to regulate it, as it was classified as a natural element and not as a drug. The fact that radium was so rare and expensive meant that most so-called radioactive products being peddled at that time were not radioactive to begin with.[7] However, radium is still used by physicians today as a treatment for cancer, albeit in very small doses.

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[1] Arlene Hyten Rainey, “The Gann Family: Vignettes of Dr. Dewell Gann, Sr., and his Family; Random Stories and Events,” The Saline, Volume 31, No. 1, Spring 2016, p. 22.

[2] Lydia King, MD and Nate Pedersen. Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything. Workman Publishing, New York, 2017, pp. 46-47.

[3] Lydia King, MD and Nate Pedersen. Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything. Workman Publishing, New York, 2017, pp. 46-47.

[4] “$5,000 Worth of Radium In Sewer,” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, September 12, 1916.

[5] “$5,000 Worth of Radium In Sewer,” Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, September 12, 1916.

[6] Arlene Hyten Rainey, “The Gann Family: Vignettes of Dr. Dewell Gann, Sr., and his Family; Random Stories and Events,” The Saline, Volume 31, No. 1, Spring 2016, p. 22

[7] Lydia King, MD and Nate Pedersen. Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything. Workman Publishing, New York, 2017, pp. 46-47.