At first the making of a death mask seemed an impossible task—plaster was hard to come by on St. Helena—but on May 7 a mold was cast by English surgeon Francis Burton and/or Napoleon's ...

Whatever else the death mask captures, it captures a dead body first and foremost. The traces of death register in masks in a variety of ways, often contingent on the corpse’s freshness.

On 7 May 1821, two doctors were engrossed in a frantic search. There was a decomposing body at stake – and if they didn't find some plaster soon, its features would be lost forever.

Wear and tear of the fragile plaster, not to mention the sheer size and value of the collection, prevent the masks from being displayed. ("They've been used a lot over the past 100 years," Mellby ...

CAMDEN — You’ll see some striking plaster masks in the relief style, meaning the masks are projected from a supporting background. You’ll see sketch-style acrylic drawings. You’ll see ...

Artisan William Luna creates a mask as Bolivia celebrates the Day of the Dead with tantawawa bread adorned with plaster masks of loved ones' faces in La Paz, Bolivia, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024.