Anna Coleman Ladd was a highly regarded American sculptor living in Boston during the outbreak of the First World War. For the duration of the war, Ladd redirected her efforts towards working for the Red Cross but quickly realized she could continue using her artistic skills for good. 

The advent of artillery and machine guns meant that facial disfigurement was more common than in any previous war, and Ladd used her studio to create realistic facial reconstruction masks for injured soldiers. 

The masks were created using a cast of the soldier's face, which was then painted over by hand and adorned with real facial hair. The masks took up to one month to make and were mostly created for injured French soldiers, although many were also made for Americans. 

Check out some of Ladd's masks in this harrowing collection.