Plaster casts of dead people's faces were popular for centuries as a means of preserving a beloved or revered individual's features for posterity, before putrefaction rendered them unrecognizable.

Archaeologists have found several stunning artifacts associated with the Mayan culture. These artifacts showcase the brilliance of artisans, and also shed light on many of this group's beliefs. In ...

It could have sprung whole from the mind of Stephen King, this room filled with silent white faces. In the gray light of morning, deadened by mist rising off the Hudson, they stare down from the walls ...

When the curators of Stanford University’s art museum asked Darren Waterston to make art from their collection, he fixed on the bone-white death mask of Leland Stanford Jr. Along with their millions, ...

Alonzo Jones held a long screwdriver with one hand and with the other tapped the handle of a screwdriver with a small block of wood. Over and over, he hit the screwdriver, using it to knock of bits of ...

The mask was made by Kenneth "Doc" Hoffman, an amateur criminologist. He actually got into the Cook County Morgue and found Dillinger's body to make the cast after he was shot back in 1934. Chicago ...

A mysterious bronze death mask of French Emperor Napoleon offers a macabre glimpse into his death in exile on the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena. The mask was cast from a mold taken shortly ...

Some of the plaster-encased bodies of victims who were buried by the ashes as they attempted to flee Pompeii during the 79 AD eruption of the Vesuvius volcano. Photo: Carlo Hermann/AFP/Getty Images ...