18 tiny deaths : the untold story of Frances Glessner Lee & the invention of modern forensics
Goldfarb, Bruce2020
Books
Find it!
Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962), born a socialite to a wealthy and influential Chicago family, was never meant to have a career, let alone one steeped in death and depravity. Yet she became the mother of modern forensics and was instrumental in elevating homicide investigation to a scientific discipline.Frances Glessner Lee learned forensic science under the tutelage of pioneering medical examiner Magrath - he told her about his cases, gave her access to the autopsy room to observe post-mortems and taught her about poisons and patterns of injury. A voracious reader too, Lee acquired and read books on criminology and forensic science - eventually establishing the largest library of legal medicine.Lee went on to create The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death - a series of dollhouse-sized crime scene dioramas depicting the facts of actual cases in exquisitely detailed miniature - and perhaps the thing she is most famous for. Celebrated by artists, miniaturists and scientists, the Nutshell Studies are a singularly unusual collection. They were first used as a teaching tool in homicide seminars at Harvard Medical School in the 1930s, and then in 1945 the homicide seminar for police detectives that is the longest-running and still the highest-regarded training of its kind in America. Both of which were established by the pioneering Lee.In 18 TINY DEATHS, Bruce Goldfarb weaves Lee's remarkable story with the advances in forensics made in her lifetime to tell the tale of the birth of modern forensics.
Main title:
Author:
Imprint:
London, England : Endeavour, 2020.
Collation:
xv, 303 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly colour), portraits ; 22 cm.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
1. Legal Medicine -- 2. The Sunny Street of the Sifted Few -- 3. Marriage and the Aftermath -- 4. The Crime Doctor -- 5. Kindred Spirits -- 6. The Medical School -- 7. The Three-Legged Stool -- 8. Captain Lee -- 9. In a Nutshell -- 10. Murder at Harvard -- 11. The Decline and Falls -- 12. Postmortem.
ISBN:
9781913068042
Dewey class:
363.25092363.25
Language:
English
Added title:
Subject:
BRN:
372136
More Information:
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beaumaris Library | Adult Non Fiction - Biography | 363.25 LEE | Available |