From Harvard Medical School, Via the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner: Murder Is Her Hobby, Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

Frances Glessner Lee, Red Bedroom, about 1944-48. Collection of the Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, courtesy of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Baltimore, MD

Frances Glessner Lee (1878 1962) crafted her extraordinary Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death exquisitely detailed miniature crime scenes to train homicide investigators to “convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell.”

These dollhouse-sized diorama composites of true crime scenes, created in the first half of the 20th century and still used in forensic training today, helped to revolutionize the emerging field of forensic science. They also tell a story of how a woman co-opted traditionally feminine crafts to advance a male-dominated field and establish herself as one of its leading voices. * Murder Is Her Hobby will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery from Oct. 20 through Jan. 28, 2018.

The exhibition is the first public display of the complete series of 19 studies still known to exist. For the first time since 1966, 18 pieces on loan to the museum from the Harvard Medical School, via the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, will be reunited with the ‘lost nutshell,’ on loan from the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, courtesy of the Bethlehem Heritage Society.

“These dollhouses of death are a fascinating synthesis of art and science,” said Stephanie Stebich, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “Showcasing the Nutshells at the Renwick allows us to appreciate them as artworks of superior craftsmanship and to highlight Frances Glessner Lee’s genius for telling complex stories through the expressive potential of simple materials.”

Lee, the first female police captain in the US, is considered the ‘godmother of forensic science.’ She was a talented artist as well as criminologist, and constructed the Nutshells beginning in the early 1940s to teach investigators at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Legal Medicine how to properly canvass a crime scene to effectively uncover and understand evidence. The equivalent to virtual reality in their time, her masterfully crafted dioramas feature handmade elements to render scenes with exacting accuracy and meticulous detail, each component a potential clue designed to challenge trainees’ powers of observation and deduction.

Lee’s commitment to realism is seen in every element of the Nutshells, from the real tobacco used in miniature hand-burnt cigarette butts and tiny stockings knit with straight pins, to the angle of miniscule bullet holes, the patterns of blood splatters and the degree of discoloration on painstakingly painted miniature corpses.