The History of Death Masks

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The face of Rescue Anni, a young woman who's supposedly drowned, was first made into a mask in a tradition that goes back to ancient Rome. In ancient Rome, artists would cover a person's face with plaster, let it harden, and then use that as a mold to make a cast or mask out of wax. It was a status symbol for men, usually between the ages of 35 and 40, to have these masks made while they were still alive. The police also used death masks to preserve the faces of anonymous bodies and try to identify them.

When a toymaker and a doctor teamed up to make the world’s first CPR doll, they decided to make the doll’s face look like one specific woman – a woman who they thought had drowned. People call her l’Inconnue de la Seine, or the Unknown Woman of the Seine.

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Artwork by Julienne Alexander.

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