Frances Glessner Lee (March 25, 1878 â January 27, 1962) was influential in developing the science of forensics in the USA. 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. Most are still in use for teaching purposes, and the dioramas are also now considered works of art. Lee also helped establish the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard, 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”.
