Frances Glessner Lee and Her Nutshell Models

Front

Frances Glessner Lee used dental tools and a carpenter’s help for her models.

Back

Her work is evidence of her unusual life and forensic vision.

Front

Frances Glessner Lee's calling card was a hybrid of societal and professional identity.

Back

Trivial details can reveal transgressive acts to a forensic investigator.

Front

Glessner Lee's dinner guests discussed crime scenes over meals.

Back

This indicates the unconventional interests she pursued within societal norms.

Front

Fanny and her brother were educated at home.

Back

Her brother attended Harvard, while she married at 19.

Front

Glessner Lee used her fortune and talents in forensic science.

Back

She entered the field while maintaining traditional feminine roles.

Front

Characteristics of the Nutshell dioramas

Back

Displayed tawdry, middle-class décor and marginal spaces of society's disenfranchised.

Front

Frances Glessner Lee's work on Nutshells involved building them at a scale of one inch to a foot.

Back

The Nutshells were constructed with meticulous craftsmanship using dental tools and a carpenter's help.

Front

The "Three-Room Dwelling" and "Attic" models include precise material clues.

Back

These clues include the pattern of spattered blood and the rope's position.

Front

Frances Glessner Lee's models were used to sharpen visual perception.

Back

She was obsessive about the amount of evidence required for this purpose.

Front

Frances Glessner Lee's work challenged traditional categories of public and private, and masculine and feminine.

Back

These categories were defined and challenged during her lifetime.