When you think about a wax museum—and I mean really think about a wax museum—it can lead you to wonder who really thought that a wax museum would be a good idea for attracting customers in the first place. A bunch of creepy statues of real people, dead or alive, who remain eerily in their fixed state for customers to gaze at for entertainment. Who could have foreseen that the idea would not only take off, but extend its reach from its place of origin in Europe to America, Asia, the Middle East, and even Australia?
How It All Began
Traveling from far and wide to see a wax statue exhibit may seem interesting, especially if you have never visited such an attraction yourself. However, what is perhaps most interesting is the history behind the spectacle. Wax museums as we know them were popularized by a Frenchwoman named Madame Tussaud, born Anna Maria Grosholtz. Her mother, Anne-Marie Walder, was a housekeeper for Philippe Guillaume Mathé Curtius, a German-Swiss doctor.
Curtius had a special interest in wax exhibitions, and he tutored the young Anna Maria in his specialty. At the age of just seventeen, she began her art career by creating her first wax sculpture of the French author and philosopher François Voltaire. As her career went on during the French Revolution, the revolutionaries demanded that she and Curtius create a series of wax models of the lifeless heads that were the product of the infamous guillotine. According to Concannon, this was just one act of cruelty that Anna Maria endured during the Revolution, as she and her mother were also imprisoned for a time during this reign of terror.
Apprentice to Master Artist
After the war, Curtius got sick and died, leaving behind his beloved wax exhibits to his young protégée. In the years following, Anna Maria married François Tussaud (thus gaining the surname she would later be known for) and bore three children. As her family grew, their finances grew thinner as the wax exhibitions seemed to have become old news in France. Eventually, an old friend of Anna Maria’s offered her a way to make money by leaving her husband and traveling to England to exhibit her art. She accepted the offer and took one of her sons abroad to fulfill this new quest, gaining popularity and creating additions to the attraction as she did so. According to the wax museum’s website, at one point, Madame Tussaud even added a room that displayed “gruesome relics of the French Revolution” in homage to her roots.
The Legacy of Madame Tussaud
Though Madame Tussaud died in 1850, her business succeeded her thanks to her children and grandchildren. As exhibits have expanded in quantity and quality across the globe, there is no end in sight for the potential of Madame Tussaud’s legacy. Thus, what came from strange beginnings retains its strangeness, to the delight of customers around the world.
Find a Madame Tussauds Near You Today!
If you can’t make it to a Madame Tussauds in person, see discover.matterport.com for a virtual walk-through of the Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas!
—Kyla Christensen
Sources
www.madametussauds.com
www.oxforddnb.com
www.discover.matterport.com