Prosthetic masks for soldiers of the First World

After the First World War, doctors faced a serious problem: many patients with faces disfigured as a result of injuries and burns appeared. In those years, plastic surgery made only the first steps and was still very dangerous. The only way out for the soldiers-cripples were prosthetic masks made of galvanized copper, made by two people: the Englishman Francis Wood and the American Anna Ladd. And they were both sculptors.

Anna Coleman Watts Ladd - American sculptor, whose work has changed the lives of many people

At the end of 1917, Ladd, who at that time lived and worked in Paris, was inspired by the activities of the British sculptor Francis Derwent Wood

Wood in his "Tin Noses Shop" in one of the London hospitals since 1916 began to create prosthetic masks for soldiers disfigured in the war.

Ladd also founded the "Portrait Masks Studio" in Paris, and there she created prosthetic masks - or rather, new faces - for disabled soldiers

People who received serious injuries and face burns experienced tremendous psychological stress

Plastic surgery in those days still could not offer them anything, and so the masks, possibly concealing the ugliness, were the only way out.

Some unfortunate people were so disfigured that from them almost nothing left

These people were called "the most tragic of all the victims of the war" - after all, most of them were doomed to live in complete isolation

Anna Coleman Ladd, thanks to her talent as a sculptor, saved many people and changed their lives forever

In 1932, for her charitable work, Anna Ladd was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor of France

Sculptor Anna Ladd: