Frances Glessner Lee

Frances Glessner Lee (March 25, 1878 - 1962) was a millionaire heiress who revolutionized the study of crime scene investigation. She founded Harvard's department of legal medicine, the first program in the nation for forensic pathology.

Biography

She was born in Chicago to a family whose wealth came from International Harvester. Her father was the industrialist, John Jacob Glessner and she was known as "Fanny" to the family. Although her brother went on to University, Frances was forbidden higher studies then and years later when she expressed interest in forensic pathology she was emphatically discouraged. She had to wait until a year after her brother's death in 1930, when aged 52, she took her first steps towards her own career.

Personal notes

Fanny's perfectionism and dioramas reflect on the family background. Her father obsessed with finessing the family home with fine furniture. He wrote a book on it and it is now a museum. She had a love of Sherlock Holmes' stories for their surprise twists due to overlooked yet clinching detail.

Career

She was inspired by a friend of her brother's, George Burgess Magrath, who was just getting his MD from Harvard Medical School, who was particularly interested in death investigation. [http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/nutshell_studies/2.html] They remained close friends until his death in 1938. During this time, Magrath became a chief medical examiner in Boston and together they lobbied for the cause of replacing coroners with medical professionals. At his suggestion, Lee set up Harvard's department of legal medicine for training medical examiners. That program influenced other states to change over from the coroner system. Magrath became the department's first Chair.

Through the 1940s and 1950s, she hosted a series of "Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death". Forty to 50 of the nation's leading crime scene investigators would be invited to a conference, where she would present them with an intricately constructed diorama of actual crime scenes, complete with working doors, windows, and lights.

For her work, Lee was made an honorary Captain in the New Hampshire State Police.

Further reading

"The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death", by photographer Corinne May Botz.

External links

* [http://www.charm.net/~bruce/clips/nutshell.htm Nutshell studies site]
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/nutshell_studies/2.html Biography]