Maker of Masks

They were called mutilés—soldiers whose faces had been destroyed by the war. Some were missing an eye, a nose, or an ear. Some had horrible burns or parts of their jaws blown away by enemy fire.

- Jacquie Sewell

Repulsed by their own deformed reflections, the former World War I soldiers avoided people and public places. For them, there were no welcome home parades or joyous reunions with loved ones. Many refused even to leave their hospitals. Some committed suicide.

Anna Coleman Ladd, an American sculptor in Boston, Massachusetts, knew she could help these soldiers. With the aid of the American Red Cross, Ladd established the Studio for Portrait Masks in Paris, France, in January 1918. Her hand-painted copper masks allowed the wounded men to feel whole. Their “new faces” gave them the confidence to return to their families, find jobs, and even fall in love and get married.

Ladd was a child when she created her first sculpture out of putty. She was classically trained in Paris and Rome. By 1907, at the age of 29, she was exhibiting her bronze busts and fountains for international audiences.