Frances Glessner Lee
American forensic scientist and "mother of forensic science" · United States · On the map · Lived 1878 to 1962 · aged 83
Frances Glessner Lee was an American forensic scientist. She was influential in developing the science of forensics in the United States.
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To this end, she created the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, twenty 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. Glessner Lee also helped to establish the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard University, and endowed the Magrath Library of Legal Medicine there. She became the first female police captain in the United States, and is known as the "mother of forensic science".