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The History of Wax Sculptures

Entertainment and education (or illumination), are foundations upon which the success of the Royal London Wax Museum rests, but they have not always been synonymous with displays of wax sculptures. In ancient Egypt, wax figures of deities were deposited in graves with other offerings as part of the funeral rites. Greeks used wax statuettes of their gods as religious offerings although they also fashioned wax dolls for their children. It was the Romans, though, who brought a gala touch to wax images. Some of these merry-makers purchased so many wax sculptures for one particular festival that the celebration itself came to be better known for its "wax" than for its original purpose. And of course the status conscious patrician families kept wax effigies of their ancestors on display that could then be utilized from time to time as part of family funeral processions.

Wax figures achieved new heights of popularity during the Middle Ages when, again, the custom of creating images of leaders flourished. This era was characterized by superstitions, and there began the practice of fashioning wax images of enemies; the figures then to be stabbed with pins in the belief that harm would come to the individual so represented. During the same time frame, wax was being used by some of the great Italian artisans, and in Spain, the wax figures formed a great part of religious art. On the scientific front, wax was the modeling medium used to depict "cut-away" sections of the human body in order that students of medicine could study anatomy. Thus it was in the pre-revolutionary days in France that Dr. Philippe Curtius brought his niece Marie to Paris as his assistant.

The French Revolution sparked the growing demands upon wax modelers. This time, the need was for fashioning death masks of aristocrats whose severed heads filled guillotine baskets. Marie, who had progressed quickly from anatomical wax sculpturing to wax images of individuals, had sculpted likenesses of many upper class French people. This association with French nobility, in concert with her considerable talent, landed her the unsavoury role of fashioning death masks. It was either that, or face Madame Guillotine herself.

She survived, and after marriage in 1795 to Francois Tussaud, Marie resumed wax modeling, displaying some of her sculptures in a travelling wax exhibition. In 1802 her collection went on display in London, after which she toured England, Scotland, and Ireland before returning to the capital and setting up a permanent exhibition in 1835. Madame Tussaud's remains a major visitor attraction in London, England.

North America Original Wax Museum

Royal London Wax Museum originally opened 1961 in a street level location of the Crystal Garden at the corner of Belleville and Douglas. It was at a time when the Crystal Garden housed Canada's largest salt water swimming pool. With floor space of about six thousand square feet and initially displaying some fifty wax figures, this attraction established North America's first exhibition of Tussaud wax figures from England. North America's first Josephine Tussaud wax museum remains the "flagship" establishment on this continent, and is a major contributor to the City of Victoria's image and reputation as "A Little Bit of Olde England."

In 1969 the Museum principals secured a lease for the current site: the former terminal building for CP Steamships that with advent of B.C. Ferries had been unused for several years. By Christmas of 1970 the expanded world of wax had opened without fanfare, with much fine-tuning left to be done. In April of 1971 with “all proper and correct” Canada's 13th Prime Minister, the Right Honourable John George Diefenbaker, officiated at the Museum's grand re-opening.

Decades of enhancements have gone well beyond the simple accumulation of wax figures. The multi-faceted "World of Wax" experience has been magnified not only through audio-visual technologies, but also through complementing displays such as the Crown Jewels Theatre, the World War I Field Surgical Hospital Kit, a piece of yellow cedar from a thousand year old log, replica sword of Genghis Khan, and original opera chairs crafted in 1987 for the Prince and Princess of Wales.

The boldest investment is perhaps the multi-media "object theatres" presentation entitled Frozen In Time. Spanning the voyages of Columbus and Cabot to the New World in the 15th century, to those of England's Franklin Expedition in the 19th century, this arctic theme exhibit area grew out of a pavilion concept for Vancouver's Expo '86. Frozen In Time alone represents a half-million dollar re-investment in Victoria's Royal London Wax Museum, and since 1991 has been technologically upgraded twice, and may be yet again.