Frances Glessner Lee (American, 1878-1962)
Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death
Forensic science pioneer Frances Glessner Lee was influential in developing the science of forensics in the United States. To this end, she created the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, 20 true crime scene dioramas recreated in minute detail at dollhouse scale, used for training homicide investigators. Eighteen of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death are still in use for teaching purposes by the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and the dioramas are also now considered works of art.
She was born in Chicago in 1878. Her father, John Jacob Glessner, was an industrialist who became wealthy from International Harvester. She and her brother were educated at home; her brother went to Harvard, but she was not permitted to attend college. Instead, she married a lawyer, Blewett Lee. The marriage ended in divorce. When she expressed interest in forensic pathology years later, she was emphatically discouraged. She had to wait until a year after her brother's death, and in 1930 and took her first steps towards her own career at age 52. She inherited the Harvester fortune and she finally had the money to develop an interest in how detectives could examine clues. Through the 1940s and 1950s, Lee hosted a series of semi-annual seminars in homicide investigation. Detectives, prosecutors and other investigators were invited to a week-long conference, where she presented them with the "Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death," intricately constructed dioramas of actual crime scenes, complete with working doors, windows and lights. The 20 models were based on challenging cases and were designed to test the abilities of students to collect all relevant evidence. The models depicted multiple causes of death, and were based on autopsies and crime scenes that Lee visited. She paid extraordinary attention to detail in creating the models. The rooms were filled with working mousetraps and rocking chairs, food in the kitchens, and more, and the corpses accurately represented discoloration or bloating that would be present at the crime scene.
Frances used a scale of one inch to one foot. She made stockings 1/12 the size of the real thing by knitting them with straight pins. She once spent three days experimenting until she was satisfied she had created a realistic burn mark on a tiny ironing board. She reconstructed 19 death scenes in total, with a dedication to detail extending to wallpaper patterns and carpets. Most of her work was painstakingly completed while viewing it through a magnifying glass. What she couldn’t create, she hired out. In one crime scene, a local newspaper was found on the floor. She contracted a printer to produce a minuscule, one-off version of that very same issue, complete with a legible title. Frances hired a carpenter to create the furniture for her dioramas, an assignment for which he had to manufacture his own miniature tools. To clone an oil painting hung above a fireplace, she commissioned an artist to paint a tiny landscape of her own New Hampshire home. Each model cost about $3,000-$4,500 to create.
Detectives, prosecutors and other investigators as students in the week-long conferences were given 90 minutes to study the scene after which they had to summarize their observations and conclude whether the death was due to murder, suicide, or accident. The week culminated in a banquet at the Ritz Carlton. Eighteen of the original Nutshells are still used today as teaching tools in forensic science, and if you want to see the Nutshells for yourself, they are housed on the fourth floor of The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (the morgue) in Baltimore, Maryland.
LOG CABIN - In 1942, Arthur Roberts, a local insurance salesman, was found dead by police who responded to a call from a friend of the victim, Mrs Marian Chase.
PARSONAGE PARLOR - In 1946, Dorothy Dennison, a high school student, was found dead after being reported missing by her mother.
RED BEDROOM - In 1944, Marie Jones, a prostitute, was discovered dead by landlady, Mrs Shirley Flanagan.
LIVING ROOM - In 1941, Mrs Ruby Davis, a housewife, was discovered dead on the stairs by her husband, Reginald Davis.
DARK BATHROOM - In 1896, Maggie Wilson was found dead by Lizzie Miller.
THREE-ROOM DWELLING - In 1937, Robert Judson, a foreman in a shoe factory, his wife, Kate Judson, and their baby, Linda Mae Judson, were discovered dead by Paul Abbott, a neighbor.
THREE-ROOM DWELLING - being viewed in museum
THREE-ROOM DWELLING - being viewed in museum
BARN - In 1939, Eben Wallace, a local farmer, was found dead by his wife, Imelda.
Frances Glessner Lee - at work on a Nutshell Study - 1940s
