The story of Madame Tussaud is as fascinating as that of the exhibition itself. Two things about her life are especially noteworthy. First, she spent her early years amid the turmoil of the French Revolution and came to meet many of the characters involved; second, and perhaps more unusually, she succeeded in business at a time when women were rarely involved in the world of commerce.

Madame Tussaud shown taking a death maskfrom the severed head of Marie Antoinette.

      Madame Tussaud was born in Strasbourg in 1761 and christened Marie Grosholtz. Her father, a soldier, was killed in battle during the Seven Years War (waged by Prussia and Britain against Austria, France and Russia) only two months before Marie's birth. For the first five years of her life Marie lived in Berne with her widowed mother, who worked as housekeeper for Dr Philippe Curtius — a physician with considerable skill in modelling anatomical subjects in wax. Soon, Marie and her mother moved with Doctor Curtius to Paris; unwittingly, they had entered a creative and politically fascinating world.
      The story of Madame Tussaud is as fascinating as that of the exhibition itself. Two things about her life are especially noteworthy. First, she spent her early years amid the turmoil of the French Revolution and came to meet many of the characters involved; second, and perhaps more unusually, she succeeded in business at a time when women were rarely involved in the world of commerce.
      Madame Tussaud was born in Strasbourg in 1761 and christened Marie Grosholtz. Her father, a soldier, was killed in battle during the Seven Years War (waged by Prussia and Britain against Austria, France and Russia) only two months before Marie's birth. For the first five years of her life Marie lived in Berne with her widowed mother, who worked as housekeeper for Dr Philippe Curtius — a physician with considerable skill in modelling anatomical subjects in wax. Soon, Marie and her mother moved with Doctor Curtius to Paris; unwittingly, they had entered a creative and politically fascinating world.
      Dr Curtius acted as a tutor to Marie, schooling her in the techniques of wax portraiture and casting. She was soon allowed to model the great figures of the time.
Among them were Francois Voltaire and the American statesman Benjamin Franklin; both of these figures are still on display at Madame Tussaud's today.