Joseph and Hyrum Smith Death Masks

9.75" tall, approx. 5.5" wide. 5lbs. Plaster copies of original death masks.

The tradition of making death masks dates back to ancient Egypt, when the masks were served as aids to portrait sculptors. By the Middle Ages, death masks were created both as a memento of the person and as a model from which sculptures and paintings of the person could be made. Although the tradition of making death masks is not well known today, it remained popular through the 19th century and into the 20th. Some famous people, including Abraham Lincoln, also sat for life masks, or casts of their faces made while they were still living.4

The Church History Department has several copies of Joseph and Hyrum’s death masks, but there are two sets of masks that are frequently displayed by the museum and referenced by historians. The first set, often referred to as the Dibble masks, is the set that has been on display in the Church History Museum for many years; it is pictured at the top of this page. These masks were created from the original mold of Joseph and Hyrum’s faces made by George Cannon, an early Saint and friend of the Smiths. A local Nauvoo plasterer named Ariah Brower may have also assisted in the molds’ creation.5 Cannon made the molds on June 29, 1844, after Joseph and Hyrum’s bodies were returned to Nauvoo. It is unknown when the masks themselves were made from the molds, which are presumed to have been destroyed during the masks’ creation.

Cannon died later that year. After his death, a Latter-day Saint named William Rowley obtained the masks, and he, in turn, sold them to Philo Dibble—another early Saint who had been close to the Smiths—in 1849.6 Dibble owned the masks for decades and exhibited them around the Utah Territory, hence the masks’ association with his name. He eventually sold the masks, which passed through various hands until being purchased by Wilford C. Wood, who displayed them in his Bountiful, Utah, museum.7 The Wood family donated the masks to the Church in 1990. Condition: Very good. Item #40369

Price: $750.00