Anna Coleman Ladd- American Sculptress

Ladd infront of her masks 

Anna Coleman Ladd was an American sculptress. She was born in Pennsylvania and started sculpting when she was a young girl. Her first sculpture was out of window putty. Later her family moved to Europe where her art skills grew tremendously. In 1905, when she was 27, she became a professional artist. In that same year she married Maynard Ladd, an American pediatrician. Together they lived in Boston where they did not have a very good relationship. Francis Derwent, an artist in London, encouraged Ladd to go to Europe in 1917. "I am confident that, should you go to Europe, your talents as a sculptor and modeler would be of immense help in this service to humanity. Men with faces half blown away  have been remade by the sculptor's art", wrote Derwent.

Some of Ladd's Masks 

Derwent was a dish washer in  a London hospital. There he saw how bad the British soldiers' wounds were and wanted to help. The physicians were only worried about the patient and keeping them alive- not about their faces. He started out making masks by packing the facial wounds with cotton wool and plaster mask. He then would make a clay model out of the healed face and put it in a thin layer of silver. Then he would paint the mask. The mask would be attached by ribbon or glasses earpiece.

Ladd decided that it would be a good idea to go to Europe and heal not only soldiers' faces but their confidence! In 1918 she founded the Red Cross Studio for Portrait Masks in Paris,France. Here she helped over one hundred French soldiers plus soldiers of other nationalities. Ladd indeed had a servant heart because she didn't get paid, she was just a volunteer.

Soldier before

The soldiers were very embarrassed about their faces. Many had their jaws or noses shot off and empty and scarred eye sockets. Many of the soldiers would avoid people and public places. Some refused to leave the hospital and even some committed suicide.

Soldier After

Ladd said, "We always tried to keep the place cheerful and frequently had the boys sitting around and playing games...We laughed with them and helped them to forget. That is what they longed for and deeply appreciated". She felt that is was very important to make the soldiers feel comfortable while they were in her office. She welcomed them with checkers, dominoes  newspapers, chocolate and wine. As the men would visit she would go around and examine their battle scars.The masks that Ladd sculpted were incredible, the soldiers looked like a whole new person, the old them that is.Her skills were incredible and you could not even notice that there was a mask on the soldier. I highly recommend you watch the video below, you will be amazed by her skills! Ladd believed that the new faces they were given would give them confidence and they could go back to their everyday life looking normal without scaring anyone.  "I was able  in every case to give mutilated, disheartened man back his personality, and his hopes and ambitions." Ladd proudly concluded this about her work.

Video of Anna making a mask

Sources:
History Channel- Anna Ladd's Masks: Mending WWI's Scars- i got an over view of her background life, the soldiers, and her studio
AVL:Try Your Hand at Making a Face- This article told me all about how Anna made her masks
AVL:Maker of Masks, Restorer of Dreams- life info about Anna-quotes from her
Faces of War- this was helpful for biography information
Anna Coleman Ladd Papers, ca. 1881-1950- her early life
Artists' Masks Hid Wounds of World War I Soldiers - how the physicians struggled