Dollhouses of Death? The Curious Case of Frances Glessner Lee
Or, how a socialite became the matriarch of forensic science
If you were an heiress around the turn of the 20th century your path in life was clear. You would be educated to the acceptable levels for a female and no further. You would marry within your class. You would live a life of luxury filling your time with acceptable feminine pursuits like needlework, organizing dinner parties, or gentle arts and crafts.
Designing and creating elaborate fully to scale dollhouse rooms complete with cabinets and drawers that open and close, tiny sweaters knitted using thread, pins, and a magnifying glass, plus a functional carpet sweeper is fully within the realm of appropriate hobbies. Setting them up as murder scenes based on real-life crimes to train detectives in the new art of forensic science not so much.
Poor little rich girl?
Frances Glessner Lee wasn’t just a little bit rich. Her dad, the head of International Harvester, was among the richest men in the country. Glessner Lee grew up on ritzy Prairie Avenue in Chicago and summered in New Hampshire.
She adored Sherlock Holmes and wanted to go to university like her big brother but her father was firm: women didn’t go to college, Glessners…
