Prompt Cast
The History and Significance of Death Masks
TLDR Death masks have been used throughout history for various purposes, including funerals, phrenology, and capturing the absence of life. They provide a detailed and often haunting representation of a person's face, and can be found in museums and collections around the world.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
On July 22nd, 1934, notorious bank robber John Dillinger was betrayed by a woman in red and apprehended by the FBI after going to see a movie with his girlfriend and her landlady.
04:34
John Dillinger, a notorious criminal, was killed and his face was used to create death masks, continuing a centuries-old tradition of making negative images of a dead person's face for later use in making masks or statues.
08:38
Death masks were used in funerals, where a person who resembled the deceased would wear their death mask, and after the funeral, the death mask would be displayed with the deceased person's relatives.
13:01
Phrenologists in the 19th century increased the demand for death masks because they wanted to compare people side by side and try to predict a person's personality and behavior based on the shape of their face and skull, but they were all wrong.
16:58
Death masks are alluring to some people because they capture not only the details of a person's face and age, but also the absence of life, such as hollow eyes or bullet holes, and the level of detail can be remarkable.
20:51
Plaster bandages are applied to the face to create the death mask, with the first layer capturing all the detail and subsequent layers reinforcing it, and the plaster sets in just a few minutes before the mold is carefully removed.
24:30
The death mask of the unknown woman of the Seine, also known as the Lincoln New Day Lasin, was widely circulated and believed to be a drowned woman, but it was likely a life mask posed for by a live model; later, the face was used to create the CPR training dummy known as Resusci Annie.
28:42
The Black Museum, now called the Crime Museum, located in Scotland Yard, contains various artifacts related to famous crimes, including letters from Jack the Ripper and death masks.
32:30
The hosts mention that they have a TV show coming out on Science Channel and receive a letter from a listener with corrections on their previous episode about peak oil and fracking.
Categories:
Society & Culture
