When most people think of plastic surgery, it is nothing new, or exciting; but back in 1920, it was. Soldiers were coming home from war disfigured and abandoned by their families. Without the brilliant work of Anna Coleman Ladd, living a normal life would be absolutely impossible for these faceless soldiers. During the 1920’s Anna Coleman Ladd realized her true potential as an artist. World War 1 had come to an end just two years prior, leaving over 17 million deaths and 20 million wounded. Out of those 20 million wounded, 11 million were military personnel. “World War I was the first war in which a man could get half his face blown off and survive,” Lubin said People from all over would come to see her, she gave them a sense of comfort and tranquility in the way she decorated her shop; she made it feel like a home away from home. “She was very interested in principles of ancient art, the sort of beautiful serene face,” says David Lubin, the Charlotte C. Weber professor of art at Wake Forest University. “And she gives these men . . . this almost unreal serenity.” Anna Coleman Ladd did not always want to create these flawless masks, she had other dreams also. …show more content…
But she knew that she needed to do something more extravagant with her life. It was after World War 1 ended, that the soldiers were coming home from the battlefields with devastating injuries to their faces. "The part of the soldier's body that was most vulnerable was his face, because if he looked up over a trench, that was the part that was going to be hit," says David Lubin. Ladd examined many of the soldiers’ disfigured faces, and then proceeded to sculpt masks to resemble who they were before the devastating trauma of World War 1. Some may argue that art changes the way the people look at the world, but by using only plaster, copper and paint, Ladd created art that changed the way the world saw the