Annie, are you OK? Are you OK, Annie?” Fans of Michael Jackson will recognise these words as the refrain of his 1988 hit Smooth Criminal , yet they will also sound familiar to those trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Resusci Annie – or Rescue Annie as she is sometimes known – is the doll used in first-aid and resuscitation training. Those learning how to administer CPR are taught that the very first step is to ask the individual if they are OK. The result: “Annie are you OK?” But where does Annie come from?
In the late 19th century, a young woman drowned in the Seine. Her body was placed on display in a Paris morgue in the hope that a relative would visit and identify her. Her beautiful, serene face, however, attracted more than just family. Artists entranced by her beauty took moulds of her face, creating death masks, sculptures and prints that
