Madame Tussauds
This world's famous wax works museum has was founded by Madame Tussaud in 1835 and quickly began one of the most popular tourist attractions in London. The origins of the museum date back to 1777, when Tussaud created her first wax figure, representing Voltaire. She started her business making death masks during the French Revolution. Two of them, those portraying king Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette survived to our times and are still in display in the museum. Other famous people of her period that she modelled were Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Benjamin Franklin.
In 1802, Madame went to London and she had to stay there because of the Franco-English war, so she travelled throughout the Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her original collection of wax death masks. Tussaud established her first permanent exhibition on London's Baker Street in 1835. One of the main attractions of her gallery was the Chamber of horrors, which included victims of the French Revolution and figures of murderers such as Jack the Ripper.
The museum moved to its current location on in 1884. Since then it has expanded all over the world opening branches in Amsterdam, Las Vegas, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Washington, with another locations to be opened in Berlin in 2008 and Hollywood in 2009.
Nowadays wax figures at Tussaud's feature all the famous and infamous of our history, from great monarchs to film stars, sportsmen and politicians. There are also some of the sculptures done by Tussaud herself still existing. The most popular figures include; Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Pope John Paul II, Woody Allen, Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley.
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