Off With His Hood: on the executioner History Today “There is an ‘executioner’s mask’ in the Tower of London, with a spooky, lopsided grin…. The presentation of these masks is part of a wider story about the role the mask plays in English life, in anybody’s life and in the museums of the 19th and 20th centuries. Those masks and hoods were made creepy, not by the touch of real executioners, but by curators, audiences, institutions of history and education and justice systems. They testify to the surprising connections between museum culture and penal culture, especially in the United States.” Back to Essays & Stories
