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Madam Tussaud's (Established 1835)

 Organisation

Dates

  • Existence: Established 1835

Biography

Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London, established in 1835 by Marie Tussaud.

Marie Tussaud nee Grosholtz was born in 1761 in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked for Swish physician and wax sculptor Philippe Curtius, from whom Marie learn wax modelling at an early age. By the time she was 17 she became the art tutor of the sister of King Louis XVI of France. During the French Revolution, Marie was imprisoned for three months to be executed, but she was eventually released. Through this period she made many sculptures of guillotine victims.

When Curtius died in 1794, he left his collection of wax models to Marie, who started to tour them around Europe.

Marie married Francois Tussaud in 1795 at which point she named her show Madame Tussaud's. In 1802, she travelled to London to exhibit her work at Paul Philidor’s phantasmagoria show. After this she was prevented from returning to France by the Napoleonic Wars, so she started to travel her show around Britain.

Marie settled down in Baker Street, London from 1831, where she eventually opened her first permanent museum in 1835. One of the main attractions of the museum was the Chamber of Horrors, which displayed victims of the French Revolution and other gruesome murders as well as figures of notorious criminals. The museum grew overtime to accommodate other exhibition areas and figures of famous people such as Lord Nelson, Henry VIII and Queen Victoria.

Marie died on 16 April 1850, aged 89.

In 1884 the museum, now managed by Marie’s grandson Joseph Randall, moved to its current location on Marylebone Road. In 1889 Tussaud's was sold to a group of businessmen, led by Edwin Josiah Poyser.

Most of the original content of the museum was damaged or destroyed by a fire in 1925. Most of the figures were either replaced or re-sculpted from existing moulds. Later in 1942 German bombs dropped in London during World War Two caused massive damage, which also resulted in the destruction of much of the original pieces.

In 2005, Madame Tussauds was sold to Dubai International Capital and in 2007, the company was merged with Blackstone's Merlin Entertainments.

Tussauds has opened several branches of its museum over the years in locations around the UK and internationally including in Amsterdam and India.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Louise Tussaud's New Exhibition Programme, c1891-1892

 Item
Reference code: 178K53.121
Scope and Contents

St. Jame's Great Hall, Oxford Street, Manchester. Black type and colour centre containing the names of Tussaud's staff and officials on the front cover, inside programme listing Mr Percival Craig, Sydney Gandy and Miss Inglefield, Professor Bracken, Living Pictures or Tableaux Vivant and The Grand Panorama, on back cover Chamber of Horrors, 2p.p.

Dates: c1891-1892