How a woman saved the lives of World War I veterans by “restoring” their faces

The First World War pulled into the light and showed all the worst and best in humanity. People who survived these tragic times will remember both the horror brought by other people and the compassion that was shown to them. One of those who made history through her kind, compassionate heart was Anna Coleman Watts Ladd, an American sculptor who moved to France in 1917.

There she was introduced to Francis Dervent Wood, the sculptor who created the Tin Nose Shop, where he helped the seriously wounded soldiers of the First World War.

Wood created masks for disfigured warriors, giving them a new chance for a normal life. Inspired by his work, Ladd opened her own “Portrait Masks Studio”, in which she made portrait masks for unhappy, mutilated soldiers in battle. Needless to say, her work has changed the lives of many people.

In those days, wounded soldiers had to cope with the most severe psychological stress, as their faces were disfigured, and those around them extremely rarely could adequately respond to such injuries.

So called mutilés were so crippled that their faces were hardly recognizable.

These victims were called the "most tragic" of all the victims of the war, since most of them were doomed to spend the rest of their lives in complete isolation.