Blue Plaque: Madame Tussaud

Marie Tussaud began her career in wax modeling by casting the severed heads of aristocrats during the French Revolution. She claimed she was forced to perform this grim task by revolutionaries who wanted proof of their executions for the public. These death masks formed the initial core of her traveling exhibition when she eventually moved her operation to London in the early nineteenth century. By displaying these relics, she transformed the macabre reality of the guillotine into a popular form of nineteenth century entertainment.