NPR

The Tiny, Murderous World Of Frances Glessner Lee

Frances Glessner Lee is known to many as the "mother of forensic science" for her work training policemen in crime scene investigation in the 1940s and 50s using uncanny dollhouse crime scenes.
Frances Glessner Lee, <em>Log Cabin</em> (detail), about 1944-46.

How do you learn to solve a crime? Police detectives spend years learning on the job, sifting through evidence in real world crime scenes. But a new show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C. explores another approach — it's called , and it showcases the work of one woman who was both a master craftswoman, and a pioneer in the field of forensic crime scene investigation.

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