WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Frances Glessner Lee and Tiny Forensics 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:06.000 Hey, Saturday Classics listeners. Today's classic is thanks to our 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:08.160 listener Rich who wrote in to remind us that there's 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:12.480 a great Smithsonian exhibit currently running that features Francis Glessner 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.920 Lee's nutshell dioramas. Yeah, we have shared some articles about 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.640 that exhibit on our social media, but we haven't mentioned 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:21.680 it on the show until now. So if you don't 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:24.800 know what those dioramas are, no worries. This episode from 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.400 back in is going to explain the whole thing and 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.760 how a wealthy heiress advanced the field of forensic investigation. 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.600 It's a pretty fascinating story of how one woman completely 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:41.000 changed an area of uh investigation and knowledge that she 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.120 really had no prior connection to. So I really love 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.239 it for that reason, and we also wanted to make 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:48.680 sure that we share information about the exhibit before we 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:51.839 start on this classic episode so that you can easily 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.840 find it. It is called Murder is her hobby, Francis 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.320 Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, And 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.240 it is running right now and it will can tinue 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:05.880 to run until January. And you're if you're listening to 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:10.039 this episode sometime in the future. Right now is November 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.280 of so you can find all the details about this 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.680 whole thing at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery. 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.560 There's also a series of public programs you can attend 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:22.119 about the exhibit, and Francis Glessner Lee and We will 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.040 link to all the information and the show notes. For now. 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.200 You can get a little background on the topic in 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:33.600 this episode. Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:43.399 from house stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.240 the podcast I'll Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Today's 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.680 topic is one that has been on my list for 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.480 a very long time, almost from the time that Uh, 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:55.280 Tracy and I came on to Stuff you Missed in 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:59.720 History Class, and many listeners have also requested it. It 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.600 uh sort of equal parts quaint and horrifying, which is 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:06.760 probably why people really love it so much and respond 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.519 to this. Uh. And it also features a woman who was, uh, 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:13.880 you know, a debutante heiress, but sort of anything but 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.079 the standard debutante heiress you may conjure in your mind 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.160 when you hear those words. And even though she was 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.519 sort of forced into that role and she had some 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:28.200 you know, society bucking instincts about where a woman should 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.880 be in uh, in her place, and how that was 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:35.480 going to work. You know, she was still nonetheless an 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.120 heiress and part of that structure that had made her 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:41.120 h that had given her that position. And her name 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:45.080 was Francis Glessner Lee, and she was a very meticulous woman. Uh. 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:46.960 There are stories that you'll hear that she was so 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.560 exacting that she actually would number the bottoms of vases 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:54.680 and knickknacks uh and similarly label the shelves that they 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.120 were supposed to go on with corresponding numbers, so everything 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.920 would always be in its exact space. That's just like 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:04.240 a quick character insight for you, because it would maybe 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.919 be no surprise then that this woman, who was surprising 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:10.919 in many ways, was a major contributor to the world 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.120 of forensic science and criminology and we actually have a 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.399 lot to thank her for. So Francis Glessner Lee came 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.200 from a very wealthy family. Her father was John Jacob Glessner, 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.360 and he made his fortune in the farm implement industry. 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.840 Her mother, Sarah Francis Macbeth Glessner, had met John Jacob 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.280 when her family had taken him in as a border 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.960 and the Glossners were very active in civic affairs. Both 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:39.520 of Francis's parents wrote a great deal. John served on 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:43.080 the boards of many civic organizations, including the Citizens Association 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.400 of Chicago and the Chicago Orphan Asylum, and he was 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.600 also a trustee of the Chicago Orchestra Association. Sarah was 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.680 something of a renaissance woman. Not only was she skilled 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.320 as a seamstress, but she also studied piano, silver smithing, 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:01.120 and beekeeping. She organized gather rings for women where they 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.600 could hear lectures and readings about contemporary writing, and she 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:06.920 was one of the founders of the Chicago Chamber Music 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:11.360 Society and was a passionate advocate for the arts. Sarah 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.560 and John's first child was George Macbeth Glessner, and he 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.960 was born in eighteen seventy one, and because George had 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.400 chronic and serious hay fever, the family ended up building 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:23.720 a second summer house in New Hampshire so he could 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:27.919 get away from the the issues in Chicago in spring 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.640 and summer that would cause this hay fever to uh 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.560 sort of be a problem for him. The couple had 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.480 a second son in eighteen seventy four. Although the baby, 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.680 John Francis sadly died when he was eight months old, 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.080 and then their daughter, Francis Glessner, was born on March 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:47.600 twenty five, eighteen seventy eight. Because of George's ongoing health issues, 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.040 the children were home schooled instead of sent to school 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.520 by a series of tutors. And that was also actually 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.400 pretty common for well to do families at the time 0:04:56.440 --> 0:04:58.599 to school their children at home. Yeah, we've had a 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.719 lot of podcast subjects who all are at home. Francis 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.600 grew up in Glessner House, which was designed by architect 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:09.000 Henry Hobson Richardson and was built in seven This house, 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:11.719 which is on Chicago's Prairie Avenue in the South Loop, 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.240 is now a National Historic Landmark and museum. Once the 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.680 Glessners moved into Glessner House, they spent winters there and 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.440 summers in their New Hampshire cabin, which was called the Rocks. 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.279 And during one of those summers while they were in 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.000 New Hampshire, the family was joined by George's friend, another 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:32.000 George named George Burgess McGrath. And this name you want 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.200 to just keep in the back of your head because 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.520 he would become a pretty significant influence on Francis later 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.640 in her life. As Francis, who went by Fanny among 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:44.880 her family members, started to approach adulthood, she became interested 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.520 in pursuing a career in law or medicine, but her 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:51.159 parents were really against this idea. There are some unsubstantiated 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.240 reports that their father, John actually believed that ladies should 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:57.440 know nothing of the human body, which sort of makes 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.320 me giggle a little bit. But you know, you of one, 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.840 you're going to fundamentally know a few things. But it's 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.719 an interesting mindset and not all of that unusual for 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.479 the early nineteen hundreds, I imagine. So instead of going 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.719 to university, which she had wanted to do, in which 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:15.920 her brother George was doing, Francis spent a little more 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:18.599 than a year traveling through Europe with her aunt Helen 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:22.680 macbeth from eighteen ninety six to eighteen ninety seven, and 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.560 after they returned to Chicago, Francis made her formal Society 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:30.559 debut in November of eighteen. Just a few months after 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:34.680 being presented into Society, Francis married lawyer blew it Lee, 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.360 who was distantly related to Robert Eally, and the new 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.039 couple moved into a townhouse the Glysteners had built for 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.440 Fanny on Prairie Avenue near the Glessner house. Her brother 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.480 George also had a townhouse built by their parents, and 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:51.040 Francis was nineteen when she married. This marriage was not 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.680 an especially happy one. Eventually it became clear that Francis 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:56.680 and blew It really did not have all that much 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.400 in common and they didn't share that many interests. One 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.200 story that her son eventually tells is that, um, you know, 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:06.719 she wanted to make things and do things all the time, 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:08.919 and blew It was just not into that. So it 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.440 really they just had a separation of mind. Uh. The 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:16.360 Perry eventually divorced in nineteen fourteen, but not before they 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.800 had already had three children together. So their children were 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:22.880 John glessnar Lee who was born in Frances Lee born 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.240 in nineteen o three, and Martha Lee, who was born 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.720 in nineteen o six. And before we go on and 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.880 talk about sort of what her life becomes after divorce, 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:41.840 so let's take a quick word from our sponsor. So 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.360 now back to Francis glessnar Lee after her divorce. So, 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:49.240 once her marriage was over and she suddenly had a 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.640 new life to begin, Francis returned to a hobby that 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.560 she had actually learned as a child, which was making miniatures, 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.880 and in nine thirteen, while she was separated but not 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.240 yet divorced from her husband, she completed her first solo 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.320 miniature diorama. And this was a detailed recreation of the 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:09.680 Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which was one of the many arts 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:12.800 organizations her mother was very passionate about. And this was 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.320 complete with tiny pieces of sheet music and tiny instrument 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:19.720 cases and little instrument stands, and it was all compiled 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.840 as a gift for her mother. She also took advantage 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.760 of her newfound independence to learn about a subject that 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.080 she had been introduced to by the family friend we 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:32.240 mentioned earlier, George Burgess McGrath, and this was forensic science. 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.960 McGrath had studied medicine at Harvard and then had gone 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.480 on to become a medical examiner. And McGrath's work was 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.840 immensely interesting to Francis. There's a story that while she 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.560 was ill at one point, he would come and visit 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:48.200 her every night and talk about his work UH to 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:52.120 keep her company, and she just became utterly engulfed in 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.720 her passion for it. UH and she became so interested 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.440 in it that in the nineteen thirties she actually gave 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.280 Harvard an endowment of two d and fifty thou dollars, 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:04.400 which has been estimated to be about three point eight 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:08.720 million in today's money adjusted for the establishment of a 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:12.800 department of legal medicine. And it's often speculated in biographies 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:15.600 of gless Earn Lee that she was as a divorcee 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:18.160 who now made her own decisions and was truly independent. 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.000 She was making up for the education that she had 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:23.280 been denied when she was a young woman and had 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.480 wanted to study but had not been allowed to by 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:29.160 her family. She also continued to give financial gifts to 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.160 the university. Uh This went on through the years to 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.559 further the department's growth and development, and her friend McGrath 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:38.280 became chair of the new department and taught pathology as 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.960 part of the program. And as we mentioned earlier, Frances 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.600 was from a very wealthy family and she had married well, 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.480 even though the marriage did not last, but she u 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:50.240 we cannot say enough how much she did not fit 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:55.199 the usual mold of a moneyed society heiress. So while 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.439 the other women of society were throwing dinner parties for 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.200 equally wealthy friends and as though see it's she would 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.520 often host large dinner parties for detectives and investigators and 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.160 scientists so she could pick their brains about their work. 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.360 I love it so much too, and as you know, 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:14.520 part of her again meticulous character that people love to 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:16.880 talk about in any interview with anybody that knew her, 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:19.959 they seemed to really want to be very clear that 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.800 this was an exacting person um like the menus would 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.520 just be really she would be so picky about everything 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:28.200 that they ate and it had to be perfect, and 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.520 she you know, wanted them to absolutely have the best 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.280 of everything, as though they were you know, her equals 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:39.360 in terms of financial footing in society. Um, these dinner 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:44.600 parties were apparently amazing, and in three gless near Lee 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.600 really made a bit of history because she had been 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:51.800 learning about forensics and had really been kind of moving 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:53.679 in these circles for so long that she was made 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.880 honorary Captain of the New Hampshire State Police at this time, 0:10:57.160 --> 0:10:59.320 and that was a title that no other woman held 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:04.800 at that point. In she hosted the first Harvard Associates 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.040 and Police Science or perhaps a seminar. This was an 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:11.920 invitation only event where attendees were treated to lavish meals 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.040 and an intensive week of learning the latest methods in 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.920 crime scene investigation from experts in the field, and those 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:23.480 were also equally meticulous these social events that centered around it. 0:11:23.640 --> 0:11:26.000 There's a story that I read in in one of 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:30.280 my sources that she purchased an eight thousand dollar china 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.080 set for the hotel that hosted this event every year, 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:35.240 and it was only used for this event. It was 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.880 basically her china that she kept at the hotel for 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.560 this thing that would happen twice a year. And because 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:42.560 I guess there's wasn't good enough. I'm not it was 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.560 unclear why she felt compelled to buy this whole set 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.040 of china. I'm gonna think maybe she was just person nickety, 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.800 I think a little bit um And through all of 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.880 her talks with investigators and detectives and her discussions with 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.439 mc grant about his work, this idea had been forming 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.720 in gless Early's mind about how she could personally further 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:06.959 the field of investigation outside of just being a financial donor. 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.000 I mean, she was really funneling a lot of money 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.360 into this department at Harvard with the intent that she 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.720 was going to raise the standards, uh, you know, through 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:20.440 education of how criminal investigation worked. So she came to 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.760 realize that if the police had prolonged access to a 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.680 crime scene, they could find the clues that would reveal 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:29.199 the events that had occurred there, which to us is 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:33.000 kind of like, well, yeah, but crime scenes just can't 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.920 be maintained indefinitely and the evidence there can be corrupted 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:41.240 or lost. And additionally, for investigators in training, there were 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.240 just never enough crime scenes in which they could practice 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.920 their skills. So Gless nearly came up with an idea 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:52.760 to train investigators and to develop their observation skills. So 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:54.880 this is sort of the thing she's most well known 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.400 for over a seven year period from ninety three to 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.000 nineteen fifty, so some of this was going on concurrently 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:06.640 with her development of these seminars. She assembled this group 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:11.120 of projects called the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. And 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.760 these were tiny dioramas that would have been in most 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:19.280 regards idyllic dollhouse scenes, weren't not for the fact the 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.120 fact that each of them depicted a death of some kind. 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.280 So each of these scenes, they're eighteen and all was 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:29.280 assembled based on case reports and court records about actual deaths, 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.360 and some of the dioramas would combine multiple cases, and 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.600 while all of the case details were meticulously recreated, that 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.720 they core in each grizzly scene was chosen by the heiress. 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.319 So these have been described by many with some degree 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:48.400 of amusement because they're clearly like the impression that a 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:51.400 wealthy woman who has only known a life of luxury 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:54.160 has of how the middle and lower class lived. They're 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:58.080 often pretty garish. Yeah, it's one of those things that 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:01.319 people kind of giggle about, even though you know she 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.240 really wasn't into all of the society trappings. It was 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.280 clearly all she had known. So even in their cabin 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.440 in New Hampshire, which was a very small and sort 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.760 of simple affair, it's still had the best of everything. 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.400 And again, this is a woman that's spent thousands of 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:20.640 dollars to have the perfect china for for police seminars. 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:24.240 So clearly she knew a certain aesthetic and a certain life, 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.760 and so when she imagined what uh poor people lived like, 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.000 or even middle class people, it was kind of very 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:32.920 funny the things she would put together and pick out, 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.160 as how their houses would look. Uh, the smallest of 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.880 these dioramas is eight by fourteen inches and the largest 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.520 is a thirty inch square three room dwelling. And I 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:48.840 cannot stress enough how incredibly detailed these are there in 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.560 one inch to one foot scale. But they have teeny 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:56.000 tiny cigarettes that she hand rolled. They have mice in 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.880 the walls, and sometimes mice and little traps. There are 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:03.320 socks that she hand knitted on straight pins, and she 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.320 would like whittle She would hand whittled tiny tiny clothes 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.160 pins that would fill these dioramas. So they were full of, 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.320 you know, sort of the debris of life and and 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.920 all of the things that are just normal parts of 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.000 any given home in this teeny tiny scale that she 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:23.160 had meticulously created. So again the word meticulous keeps coming up. 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:27.440 And there's a reason she was. Uh. The skin on 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.920 the dolls that she used was carefully painted to mimic decomposition. 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.160 In some cases, if it was a case where the 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.360 scene was supposed to be found with this body having 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:41.040 been there for a while, the blood spatter is carefully 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.160 applied to walls. In cases where there is one there's 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.840 one piece that's entitled burned cabin. And she had again 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:51.400 meticulously built this entire cabin and then she burned it 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.480 down with a blowtorch. UM, and she was also using UH. 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:57.680 She didn't do all of this all by herself, although 0:15:57.680 --> 0:15:59.920 most of it was, but she would also use carpon 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.240 or sometimes she had a carpenter that she retained and 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.240 really trusted, and he would work on some of the 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:15.120 smaller woodworking elements of it. So in these dioramas, the 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.480 shades and the drawers all work. The doors have these 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.400 tidy functioning locks with anybody keys. In the scenes where 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:26.320 their children, there are miniature toys that are carefully recreated 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:31.080 to mimic full sized versions. And aside from their criminology impact, 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.400 these dioramas are just incredible works of art all on 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:38.280 their own. But the most important thing about these scenes, 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:40.680 as much as I could personally go on and on 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.400 about all of their little details that just completely capture 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:49.760 my attention, UH, they provided really important learning models for investigators. 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:55.080 So through an analysis of each of these tiny crime scenes, UH, 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.120 a systematic approach to crime scene investigation was really developed. 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:05.160 She basically reduced these two UH investigators police officers and detectives, 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:07.800 and they used them to develop the methods that are 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.320 still being used today. Uh. These include like using search 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.040 zones to analyze a crime scene, and investigative patterns where 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.080 they'll sometimes circle a scene from like the outside and 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:21.840 spiral in word two so that they don't miss any details. 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:24.800 And these are standard procedures now, and they came from 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:28.600 these tiny, little sort of dollhouse dioramas. Yeah, what's amazing 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:30.960 to me isn't just that their standard procedure now, but 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:37.639 that before anybody put together a methodology like this, the 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:40.760 whole field of crime scene investigation was kind of chaos. 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:43.120 Like we talked about in our acts Man of New 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:48.520 Orleans episodes, like their people didn't really have a standardized 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:50.640 and methodical way of looking at a scene to try 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.680 to find evidence, and so they didn't and so even 0:17:53.760 --> 0:18:00.000 when they would consult with uh other other investigators, sometimes 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.159 they just weren't working off the same page because they 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.119 didn't use the same approaches in all cases, and it 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:10.199 just made things really tricky and needlessly complicated. So one 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.000 of the things that she even did as part of 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.400 her seminars that she was hosting is she was basically 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:20.120 creating a network of investigative researchers, so men that had 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:24.760 gone through. Uh. Eventually, I presume women attended, but in 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:26.880 the early days it was all men that had gone 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.200 through these classes, and these seminars would then be connected 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:32.959 to one another after they graduated the seminar, and they 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.840 would consult with each other, and she sort of developed this, 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:40.120 you know, she catalyzed this network developing where detectives could 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:41.840 talk to each other about things they had found at 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.200 crime scenes and really, um, you know, kind of grow 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.760 the field in a way that it never would have 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:49.920 grown otherwise if somebody hadn't said, let's all get in 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:52.120 a room together and talk about what we're doing. It's 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.919 very cool. So all of these scenes, I mean, they 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:57.800 all had a backstory of their own. They were put 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.000 together based on actual case reports and actual information about crimes. 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:04.119 But the goal, according to Gless nearly was not to 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.280 solve the crime that had happened in the diorama. It 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:12.560 was to practice observation. And the nutshells became part, as 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:14.959 I said, of these happ seminars. And they've been used 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:19.000 to train investigators at the gathering for years, so normally 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:20.919 when she was first doing this, I don't know if 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:24.080 the methodology of using them has changed. But like each 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:26.560 student would be assigned two of the models and they 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.960 would get approximately ninety minutes of study for each scene, 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.800 and then later the student investigators would give a verbal 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.840 report before the group and they would all have a 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.199 discussion of their findings that would ensue and one of 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:42.960 this goal. One of the goals of this practice, as 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:45.560 I said, she was developing this network and this dialogue 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:48.560 among different investigators of how they would approach things. But 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.639 it was also to get students away from this concept 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:54.880 of following a hunch and instead to take in all 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.080 of the evidence that they see on a crime scene 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.239 with an open mind, like instead of just looking for 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:03.119 things that verify what they suspect has happened, she wanted 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.520 them to learn to look at everything in a crime 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.399 scene and not let any stray detail go because they 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.600 didn't think it supported what actually happened. This is reminding 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.320 me of like an episode of Bones. It should because 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.719 a lot of that grew out of this. Uh. She 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:22.200 is also allegedly I didn't put it in here initially, 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.080 but there have been rumors for years that she was 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:28.159 actually the inspiration for Angela Landsbury's character on Murder. She 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:30.880 wrote because she was an older woman at this point 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:34.560 doing all of this excited crime scene investigation. Gless nearly 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.399 continued to advocate for medical training for leal agents and 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:42.200 systemized investigation practices and law enforcement all the way until 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.199 the end of her life. Yeah. Prior to her and 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.919 her work with McGrath, coroners for example, didn't need to 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.359 have any medical training. It was, you know, an appointment 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:54.200 that they would get and then they would rely on 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.160 on the people below them to cover the medical basis. 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:59.080 But she really wanted to make sure that there was 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:03.679 a systematic a to uh make sure that trained medical 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:07.120 personnel were involved in investigations and it wasn't just people 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:10.639 guessing that did not know the workings of the human body. 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:13.440 Francis died in New Hampshire at the Rocks at the 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:16.320 small home that her family had had built there, on 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:21.200 January nineteen, two and four years later, the Department of 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.360 Legal Medicine that she had endowed at Harvard was dissolved 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:28.399 for lack of funding. The collection of Nutshell studies became 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.520 part of a public display at the Maryland Medical Examiner's 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:34.880 Office when the Department of Legal Medicine was closed. So 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:37.480 not only are they available for a public viewing, but 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:41.400 they're also used as teaching tools for forensic investigation. Yeah, 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:45.920 I think now you have to actually request permission to 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:48.200 go see them. I think there's one in the lobby. 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:50.920 I've read a few different reports and they follow at 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:53.919 different times, like different years that they've been written. I 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:56.080 think there's one or two still in the lobby that 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:58.080 people can just walk in and see, and you can 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:00.440 examine all of them if you just make an appointment 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:02.240 to go up. I think they're on the third floor 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:06.520 of the Maryland Medical Examiner's Office. Uh So in the 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:10.600 Nutshells actually underwent a restoration that cost about fifty dollars, 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:13.280 just a general sort of upkeep and refresh, although they 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.960 still have the Kukie decor in. A documentary about the 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:20.679 Nutshell Studies was made entitled of Dolls and Murder and 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:23.880 it examines the place of Glessners Lee's work in relation 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.239 to the forensic world, as well as the role of 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:32.320 women in society. Yeah, a lot of modern historians have 0:22:32.560 --> 0:22:35.080 kind of wanted to analyze her place in terms of 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:39.200 like an an early phase of feminism, which I didn't 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:41.680