The Death Mask of Napoleon 5details

Further Adventures of the Mask

City authorities moved the death mask, along with their offices, from the Cabildo to Gallier Hall in 1853. During the tumult that accompanied the Civil War, the mask disappeared. A former city treasurer spotted the mask in 1866 as it was being hauled to the dump in a junk wagon!

Rather than return the mask to the city, the treasurer took the mask home and put it on display there. Eventually Napoleon’s death mask wound up in the Atlanta home of Captain William Greene Raoul, president of the Maxican National Railroad.

Return to New Orleans

Finally, in 1909 Napoleon’s death mask made its way back to the Crescent City. Captain Raol read a newspaper article about the missing mask and wrote to the mayor of its whereabouts. In exchange for suitable acknowledgement, Raoul agreed to donate the death mask to New Orleans. The mayor transferred the mask to the Louisiana State Museum that year.