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At the turn of the twentieth century, it was a belief that fresh air, rest and a nutritional diet was the best way to treat tuberculosis patients. Dr. J. W. Pettit implemented this therapy by establishing the Ottawa Tent Colony in 1904. Antibiotics had not been developed at that time, so the fresh air treatment was the only option. TB patients were kept in canvas tents or open wooden huts outdoors, in freezing winters and blazing hot summers. It might seem odd today, but it worked for those in the early stages of the disease. Here is the amazing story.

November 13, 1909 was like any other day for the 480 men who went into the coal mine at Cherry, Illinois, to begin another day's work. The mine at Cherry was just a few years old, and it was considered the safest mine in America. However, within hours, a fire in the mine would take the lives of 259 men and boys. It would make widows of more than 100 women and orphans of 500 children. Eight days after the fire, twenty men emerged in a miraculous tale of survival. The Cherry mine disaster remains the third worst coal mining disaster in United States history. But it brought about sweeping reform. It changed child labor laws in America and it resulted in the first workmen's compensation laws. This disaster was a bonanza for a number of local photographers, and the several hundred picture postcard views they produced provide a valuable visual account of this terrible event. This book provides the most comprehensive collection of these photographs which document this American tragedy.

"It will put pink cheeks on you." That is what the managers of Radium Dial in Ottawa, Illinois, told the young women who painted radium on the faces of clock dials in the 1920s and 1930s. Instead, their teeth fell out and their jaws and bones disintegrated. Instead of putting pink in their cheeks, it put the women in their graves. The company knew the hazards of working with radium, but they took no safety precautions. They lied to the workers and they denied compensation to the victims. To avoid financial liability, Radium Dial closed its doors and reopened a few blocks away as Luminous Processes and continued its deadly work for another forty years. Radium Dial cared more about the health and profitability of its company than they cared about the health of the women who made the company profitable. There really was a "Society of the Living Dead," formed by the women who were dying from radium poisoning. Their astounding true story is told here.