She Was Instrumental To The Development Of Forensic Science In The United States, And So Were The Tiny Murder Scenes She Created
If you’re passionate about forensics or have always been fascinated by the science of it all, you should know who Frances Glessner Lee was.
Frances was crucial to helping develop forensic science in the United States through her crime scene dioramas and was also the first female police captain in America.
Frances was born to a wealthy family in Chicago in 1878. She was educated at home by private tutors, and as she got older, she had a great interest in studying medicine.
However, because her family believed women shouldn’t try to enter the male-dominated field, she didn’t go to medical school and married as soon as possible.
Over the years, Frances became very interested in more artistic domestic hobbies like sewing, knitting, metalwork, embroidery, painting, and making miniature figures and objects, all of which would be useful for her revolutionary career.
After having three children and eventually divorcing her husband, Frances became interested in forensics and unsolved crimes in her forties, which some say may have stemmed from her love of Sherlock Holmes.
In the early 1930s, she inherited her family fortune and used it to found the Department of Legal Medicine at the prestigious Harvard University.
Frances became very involved in the department, organizing seminars and managing curriculums.
After learning that students in the department had difficulty examining crime scenes without disturbing or ruining any evidence, she had a brilliant idea to help them solve those issues.
Tatjana – stock.adobe.com- illustrative purposes only
Using her miniature figurine-making skills in the 1940s, Frances created a series of 19 impeccably detailed miniature crime scene dioramas for students to use in classes called ‘Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.’
These dioramas were very precise and represented real and challenging crime scenes that helped students try and analyze what happened without messing up any evidence. They quickly became one of the most powerful training tools for future criminal investigators and are still used in many training seminars today.
After the Nutshells were deemed a great success, Frances was made a captain in the New Hampshire State Police in 1943, making her the first woman in America to have the title.
Some of Frances’ dioramas can be seen at the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and were also part of a famous exhibit at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Frances passed away in New Hampshire in 1962 at 83 years old. Her work was brilliant, and her impact will always be tremendous on the forensics community.
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