Death Masks – What’s Old is News

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By Sean Graham

With Halloween here, I revisit my 2013 conversation with the University of Glasgow’s Sabine Wieber about death masks. We talk about the artistic meaning of the masks and how they affected people’s understanding of death. We also chat about the material culture nature of the masks and how she deals with what would generally be considered a dark topic.

Historical Headline of Week

Hayley Campbell, “How Death Masks Blur the Lines Between Art, Mourning, and Remembrance,” Literary Hub, August 24, 2022.

Sean Graham is a cultural historian, an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University, and a contributing editor with Activehistory.ca

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