10/19/2025
Her face is serene, almost haunting—a half-smile frozen in time, yet it has saved countless lives. This is the story of L’Inconnue de la Seine, the Unknown Woman of the Seine, a young woman who drowned in the River Seine in Paris during the 1880s. In those days, it was common practice to display unidentified corpses at the mortuary, in the hope that someone might recognise and claim them. When the pathologist on duty encountered her, he was captivated by the calm, enigmatic expression on her face. Moved by her beauty and mystery, he commissioned a plaster cast of her visage, creating a death mask that would be replicated numerous times. This anonymous young woman, once lost to the waters, became immortalised in Parisian memory as an icon of quiet elegance and mystery.
Decades later, in 1955, the story of this unknown woman took an unexpected turn. Asmund Laerdal, a Norwegian toymaker, was designing a training mannequin for CPR. Seeking a natural and human appearance for his creation, he recalled the mask of the Unknown Woman that had hung in his grandparents’ home. Her calm, reassuring face became the model for Resusci Anne, the first CPR training doll. In this extraordinary way, the anonymous girl who drowned in the 19th century became the face that taught generations of rescuers how to save lives.
Today, her influence is immeasurable. Through the countless hands that have practiced CPR on her likeness, she has become, in a sense, the most kissed face in history. Though her identity remains a mystery, her quiet smile endures, linking a tragic past with a legacy of hope, courage, and lifesaving skill. From a Paris mortuary to classrooms and hospitals around the globe, the Unknown Woman of the Seine continues to touch the world in ways she could never have imagined.
