Read The Essay | Go to NLM Digital Collections | Watch on YouTube | Read Transcript
DATE: 1918 LENGTH: 5 min CATEGORY: Clinical & Surgical, Silent, Black & White |
PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: American Red Cross |
Summary
A few seconds into this film, a young soldier standing in the foreground removes his chin to reveal a scarred hollow where his jaw once was. He reattaches the chin. A woman in military uniform appraises the fit. She is Anna Coleman Ladd, an American sculptor and former socialite, and this is the Studio for Portrait Masks, where, as the soldiers put it, you come to get a “tin face.” Soldiers are routinely maimed in armed conflict, but trench warfare dramatically increased facial injury. These galvanized copper masks offered a way to “face” the world…Read The Essay