I wish I were in Chicago to see this exhibit. Correction: I wish I were in Chicago with Snufkina, who loves tiny things, to see it. Frances Glessner founded Harvard's Department of Legal Medicine in 1936; she also built a series of dollhouse crime scenes to train police detectives.
Still used in forensic training today, the eighteen dioramas are engaging and shocking visual masterpieces. Built on a scale of 1:12 , they each display an astounding level of precision: pencils write, window shades move, and every detail -- a newspaper headline, a bloodstain on the rug, an outdated wall calendar, a cartridge casing -- becomes a potential clue to the crime.
courtesy of Oblomova
