Frances Glessner Lee and Erle Stanley Gardner

Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970), creator of that crime-solving attorney Perry Mason, was an avid admirer of Frances Glessner Lee, captain in the New Hampshire State Police, and founder of the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and of the Harvard Associates in Police Science. There is plenty of evidence to support their friendship, but little that indicates how it began.  Nevertheless, Gardner’s pen was prolific in his praise of Capt. Lee and the eighteen miniature crime scenes she designed for the purpose of training police offices to take away as much evidence as possible from the clues offered by the crime scene itself.   

The details contained in these miniature crime scenes, dubbed The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, which Capt. Lee created herself, were not only microscopic, they were baffling.  This is precisely why Gardner’s book The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom bears the following dedication: 

In the foreword of that same book, Gardner recounts how he had the unique privilege of attending one of Capt. Lee’s seminars on Homicide Investigation at Harvard. These were exclusive, invitation only classes given for policemen, and as far as records show, Gardner was the only “layman” to ever attend one.  

Gardner's membership certificate in the Harvard Associates in Police Science,
signed by Frances Glessner Lee, October 1948

Capt. Lee attended them all as well as other instructors, the best in the fields of forensics, crime detection, medicine, and criminology. Having witnessed all this, Gardner concludes that “these homicides have for the most part been conceived with a diabolical ingenuity which would give the proverbial ‘Philadelphia lawyer’ brain fog within the first few minutes.” Furthermore, Gardner announces: “I am not going to have any of Mrs. Lee’s graduates appearing in my books. Such an officer would not only solve the crime as soon as the hero could, but he just might be a hundred or so pages ahead of the procession.” [Gardner, Erle Stanley. Foreword to The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom, vii-x. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1949.]

Upon Frances Glessner Lee’s death in January 1962, Gardner was asked by the Boston Globe if he would write a sort of eulogy. This he did, as “a labor of love.” The document begins: “My friend, Captain Frances G. Lee, had a keen brain, a big heart, and an open mind.” He continues:

“Because she had an orderly mind and a logical mind, she was able to comprehend police work in a way that enabled her to make a shrewd and accurate appraisal of individual cases as well as overall planning of what was being done and an accurate estimate of what should be done.  Because she had a great big human heart, a warm understanding and the approach of a woman of highly developed maternal instincts, she not only adopted the cause of legal medicine and law enforcement as an intellectual pursuit, but she came to regard the men in the law enforcement as her “boys” and they in turn gave her a respect and affection which brought about a warm human relationship.”  (Gardner, Erle Stanley. “She Would Battle for Ideas at the Drop of a Hat.”  The Boston Sunday Globe, Feb. 4, 1962).

Parker Glass, secretary of the Harvard Department of Legal Medicine, seconded Gardner’s sentiments canonizing Mrs. Lee as “unquestionably one of the world’s most astute criminologists.” [Banner, Earl. “She Invested a Fortune in Police, Entertained Them Royally at Ritz.” The Boston Sunday Globe, Feb. 4, 1962.]

           

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Cray Kennedy was privileged to work as an intern in the collections department at Glessner House Museum during the summer of 2017, primarily cataloging the museum's collection of Frances Glessner Lee images. Cray is studying history and is particularly interested in preservation, historical architecture, and collections. She attends the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota.           

THE NUTSHELL STUDIES:

The first-ever public exhibition of the Nutshell Studies, entitled "Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death," will open on Friday October 20, 2017 at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.   William Tyre, Executive Director and Curator of Glessner House Museum will speak about Lee's life and work at the Renwick on Saturday October 21st at 2:00pm; the event is free and open to the public.  The exhibit runs through January 28, 2018.

Frances Glessner Lee Remembered

Frances  Glessner Lee in 1961

Today marks the 52^nd anniversary of the death of Frances Glessner Lee, the last surviving family member to have lived in the house at 1800 South Prairie Avenue.  A highly-regarded pioneer in the field of legal medicine, Lee has just been honored by her inclusion in a new children’s book focusing on the work of female scientists.

Lee became interested in legal medicine (also known as forensic science or homicide investigation) through her friendship with Dr. George Burgess Magrath, a long-time family friend and classmate of her brother George at Harvard University.  In 1932, Lee gave a gift of $250,000 to Harvard to create the chair in legal medicine in the medical school.  The endowment ensured the perpetuation of the department in which Dr. Magrath had taught since 1907.

Two years later, Lee presented the school with a library of over 1,000 volumes, which was dedicated as the George Burgess Magrath Library of Legal Medicine.  The library, unique in the United States at the time, was personally assembled by Lee and contained many rare volumes and documents, some dating back to the 15^th century. 

In the mid-1940s, Lee initiated biannual seminars in homicide investigation at Harvard.  State policemen from around the country vied for the opportunity to attend and earn the distinction of being a Harvard Associate in Police Science.  The seminars included an examination of the “Nutshell Studies” – miniature rooms depicting death scenes meticulously created by Lee for the study and analysis of evidence.  The 18 rooms are still in use today and now reside at the Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore, Maryland.

Frances Glessner Lee at work on the Nutshells in the early 1940s

In 1943, Lee was honored for her contributions to the field by being appointed as a State Police Captain in the state of New Hampshire, the first female to be appointed to that position in the country.  She was later given honorary status in many other state and municipal police departments as well, and in 1956 received an honorary doctorate in Civil Laws from New England College.

She died peacefully at her home at The Rocks Estate in New Hampshire on January 27, 1962 at the age of 83 and was interred in the Maple Street Cemetery in Bethlehem, New Hampshire.

The new book, Girls Research! Amazing Tales of Female Scientists, was written by Jennifer Phillips and published in 2014 by Capstone Press.  The premise of the book is to introduce a young audience to the significant accomplishments of women who not only made important strides in the field of science, but in the early days, had to overcome obstacles to get an education, jobs, and respect. 

The two-page entry for Frances Glessner Lee states, in part:

“Glessner Lee wanted a career.  Being creative and determined, she found a way to get one.  In fact she created an entirely new profession – the field of forensic science.   You’ve probably heard of the TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.  In that show scientists study crime scenes to find out who committed a murder. . . Many of the techniques forensic scientists used today were created by Glessner Lee.”

The book places Frances Glessner Lee in an elite group of female scientists including Anna Freud, Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Jocelyn Elders, Florence Nightingale, Mary Leakey and many others.