The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death are a series of twenty miniature dollhouse dioramas made by the pioneering forensic scientist Frances Glessner Lee in the nineteen-forties. These studies were created with the intention to be used as training tools for Harvard’s legal medicine students and therefore based on real-life crime scenes of homicide, accidents, or suicides to an incredible level of detail and specificity. This is because too often criminal investigators overlook and disregard pivotal evidence in a case in favor of evidence that supports their hunch. Her miniatures depicted the deadly realities associated with domestic life from prostitution to alcoholism and adultery in efforts to underscore and reflect the lack of safety typically expected of domestic spaces. Moreover, Lee not only sought to illustrate the death that transpired at the scene but also the socioeconomic circumstances of those involved and their state of mind at the time the death took place. Her miniatures were not truly considered art until recently due to their primary use as scientific tools and gruesome level of detail.
Access the image gallery of her studies on exhibit at the Renwick Gallery here.
