Camille Minichino (aka Margaret Grace) here. I'm thrilled to be part of this wonderful blog. Because I'm so insecure about my own abilities (especially after seeing the amazing Pavrati!), I decided to start with a pioneer miniaturist, Frances Glessner Lee (1878–1962). Lee was a society matron and International Harvester heiress whose life was dedicated to miniatures and forensics.
This little info-blog is for those who may not have heard of Lee's amazing dioramas, compiled in "The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death." Lee meticulously crafted miniature scenes in the normal dollhouse scale of 1 inch = 1 foot to teach law enforcement students the intricacies of investigating a crime scene.
The dioramas have extraordinary detail and verisimilitude. The windows open and close and the pencils write; tiny clothespins, whittled by Lee hold stockings that she knitted using straight pins. The kitchen crime scene shown contains half-peeled potatoes in the sink.
Lee endowed a Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard, and eventually gave seminars to homicide detectives. As far as I can tell from the sources, it was she who came up with the idea of "circling" a crime scene in a methodical pattern to obtain the best vision of what the evidence revealed.
For a look at more of her macabre scenes: http://www.bellwethergallery.com/artistsindex_01.cfm?fid=28
Long before CSI, Lee was a tireless advocate of forensics science and dedicated miniaturist.
No wonder I wish I could have lunch with her.
3 comments:
Dear Camille!
Thank you for bringing to us the work of Frances Lee. Her mini scenes are incredible! I went to the site you mention in the article and was blown away by the amount of detail she put in her work! The cigarette butts? Matches? Bits of paper on the pavement...
If she were here, I would ask her to investigate a mini mystery. I am working on a dollhouse animation right now, and the female protagonist is presumed dead. Since you are a lover of mysteries, would you care to investigate?
For details, visit: http://dollhouseanimation.blogspot.com/
You are always many steps ahead in your use of blog technology! I'll have to finish a degree in criminology before tackling this.
this is absolutely amazing!!!
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