Wax to the max: Washington's Madame Tussauds

The Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Washington, on 14th Street, displays a selection of life-sized figures of celebrities, sporting figures, politicians, and presidents.

Anna Maria Grosholtz (1761-1850, born in France, worked for Dr Philippe Curtius, a physician and wax sculptor in Paris. His first exhibition of waxworks was shown in 1770 was a French artist who sculpted figures in wax. In 1777 Anna Maria created her first wax figure of Voltaire. When Curtius died in 1794 he left his collection to Anna Maria. She married Francois Tussaud and moved to London, where she established a Wax Museum in Baker Street in 1835. Her museum has expanded to branches in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Sydney, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Shanghai, Berlin, Washington DC, New York, and Hollywood.

In Washington DC, the photographs show: Fidel Castro the former President of Cuba – J. Edgar Hoover, first Director of the FBI – American actress Julia Roberts – TV host Larry King – civil rights activist Martin Luther King – heavyweight boxer Mohammad Ali – American actor Morgan Freeman – and former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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