Hutton Collection of Life and Death Masks The living and the dead mingle freely in this collection from Princeton University's Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. And it may or may not surprise you to see that the faces of the still-breathing are often gloomier (John James Audubon), sterner (George Washington), crankier (William Wordsworth), and more morose (Daniel Webster) than those of the recently deceased (Jeremy Bentham). Other mugs are more in line with what you might expect. We compared the plaster portraits of sworn enemies Robert E. Lee and William T. Sherman and found them both drawn and lean. And the mask of James Dean cast just months before his death seems to take on a fateful air, bridging the gap between the now and the hereafter. (in Society & Culture > People)
