The shownotes are coming, but we wanted to get this news to you as soon as possible: Registration is open for our Field Trip to Austria, June 20-30, 2024!! Head on over to Like Minds Travel and take a gander at the itinerary. This is going to sell out, which sounds like Cyber Monday blah blah, but it’s true. The people that you hear on these travelogues who are on their second or more trips are there because they acted fast. We hope to see you there!
Frances Glessner Lee circa 1935 via Glessner House Museum
Frances Glessner Less was a woman of unyielding determination and creative energy who used everything at her disposal (invcluding a vast inheritance) for both the common good and to further science in the field we now know as forensic Medicine.
Frances Lee was born into a very wealthy family on March 25, 1878, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father’s position as a founding executive (at the company that would eventually become International Harvester) funded the family’s lavish life in both Chicago and at their summer home called The Rocks, in New Hampshire. Her mother was an intellectually curious member of Chicago society who put her efforts not only into the arts (helping found the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, for instance) but also in assisting her two children to pursue their own interests.
Frances’ brief marriage resulted in three children, but her interest in medicine, science, law enforcement, and various crafts converged to forge her legacy when she put her everything into helping found the Department of Legal Medicine (the forerunner to forensic science) at Harvard University. She would go on to not only personally build a library for the college in this field, but to spread the science of it into communities all across the United States with lectures and twice-annual seminars for law enforcement personnel beginning in the 1940s
At these seminars, which she organized and ran, she crafted exquisitely detailed, miniature crime dioramas for the attendees to sharpen their skills in detective work and expand their knowledge of the science of death. Called the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, they aren’t macabre dollhouses, they are highly detailed learning tools…and they’re still in use today.
One of Frances’ Nutshell Studies, The Red Bedroom (photo credit: Lorie Shaull via wikicommons.)One of Frances’ Nutshell Studies ( photo credit Lorie Shaull via wikicommons)Just one of the teeny tiny details in Frances’ dioramas, this one from the garage shown above. Photo credit: Lorie Shaull via Flickr
Frances Glessner Lee, at the age of 83, died on January 27, 1962 at her home. She’s buried in the Maple Street Cemetary in Bethlehem, New Hampshire.
Time Travel With The History Chicks
Books!
The biography by Brice GoldfarbThe coffee table book that requires the right coffee table (By Corrine May Betz)The lecture made into a book, with pictures! by William TyreThe book Susan borrowed so often she went ahead and bought, graphic non-fiction compilation by Penelope BagieuThe niche book the barista wanted to listen to more of, by Deborah Blum
The Rocks in Bethlehem NH...the perfect place to buy your Christmas tree (and hike the trails, take classes, and maybe have a wedding. To learn more about the fire and restoration projects since, visit THE ROCKS. Harvard Associates in Police Science is still an active organization that holds an annual Frances Glessner Lee Homicide Investigation seminar. Frances is mentioned on the Harvard Medical School History website in regard to the Nutshell Studies and the Legal Medicine department…but not as boldly as we would like. Maybe this was an artifact from her “behind the scenes days” because it couldn’t possibly be an intentional slight…could it?
And a history that only makes sense after you listen to the episode but we love a good Rabbit Hole: History of Coca-Cola.
Moving Pictures!
Season 17, episode 14 of NCIS has it all: Nutshell-style dioramas, mentions of Frances, an involved podcast audience…okay, that’s all it has but, you know, entertaining. Catch it wherever you watch that long-running show.
The documentary, Of Dolls and Murder, is on YouTube, but it requires permissions to watch it, so you can search for it yourself over there.
CBS Sunday Morning’s coverage of the showing of the Nutshell studies:
Break music: The Banks of Green Willow, by George Butterworth; end music, Victim of Crime, by Heifervescent used with permission, ilicense Music.
In mid-September, a group of fifty travelers, two podcast hosts, and two travel organizers converged on London with the goal of standing together where history happened. Goal achieved and far exceeded!
We (the two aforementioned podcast hosts) wanted to hear from the travelers themselves about their journey, so we’ve invited them to help create this episode. You’ll hear tales of art, theater, adventure, side-quests, and lots of history– but perhaps the greatest experiences for all of the travelers were the friendships made along the way.
Laura Hart, of Like Minds Travel, had carefully planned this adventure to hit places that we have talked about on previous episodes, as well as leaving a bit of time each day for people to head out on side-quests and do things that were special to them. Thanks to technology, the entire group had met virtually long before Day One and planned these excursions together.
“Anyone want to visit the Churchill War Rooms?” someone would ask in our WhatsApp group. Next thing we knew, the side quest had been planned, people had signed up, and tickets were purchased. Lather, rinse, repeat.
It was a glorious thing to watch happen and a more glorious thing to experience.
Here are some of the highlights of our Field Trip, but listen to the episode for more details from the people who lived them!
The first thing thatwe did as a group was take a night-time, doube-decker bus tour of this beautiful city!We braved the chill to see the glistening sites.Day one included a tour of Westminster Abbey AND a romp through Buckingham Palace on the last day it was open for their season! One small corner of the palace from across a pond.First group photo! In front of the Tower of London!As we entered for our private viewing of the Crown Jewels!Yes, Jett, the Tower of London is very similar to a RenFest with a very important difference.Just a tiny corner of Blenheim Palace’s gardens…the secret isn’t that this is here, it’s how to get in.We broke into two groups for a Suffragette walking tour and heard differing opinions on this woman: Emmeline PankhurstOur private Fortnum and Mason afternoon tea and etiquette lesson with Eileen Donaghey, The Afternoon Tea ExpertJane Austen Day! This was the desk where she wrote!Jane Day AND Highclere Castle Day!Hampton Court,a castle where Henry VIII lived, was part one of a theme day.The second part of the theme day was seeing SIX! The Musical! (The theme was the Wives of Henry VIII, get it?)An accidental sidequest: Beckett spotted this pillar mailbox with Queen VICTORIA’S cypher near our hotelOne very proud Mom on another side-quest in the Leake Street Tunnel!Good night London, it’s been a trip of a lifetime!
Stay tuned for announcements in the near future about Field Trips for 2024!
We’re making some changes behind the scenes, cleaning things up and, for the most part, you won’t even know how busy we are with one exception:
We have to swap podcast players on every shownote we have on this website and it’s going to take us a bit. If the episode that you’re trying to play ON THIS SITE ONLY isn’t working, it just means we haven’t gotten there yet, but we will!
There will be no interruption of our episodes on most podcatchers like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, CastBox, Google Podcasts, Podcast Addict…etc. (you get the point.) The only place that we are no longer available is Wondery+ (and if you’re one of the very few who listened there, we’re very sorry about that!)
While we’re on a Field Trip, we turned the show over to the Roosters this week with a Veuve Clicquot adjacent subject: The History of Absinthe with The Gilded Gentleman, Carl Raymond. Keep an ear out for cameos from Bowery Boy Greg Young, and Chris Graham Beckett’s husband. Carl talks with Don Spiro, creator of New York’s Green Fairy Society to tell the truth and bust the myths, surrounding this historic beverage. For show notes on this episode, visit The Bowery Boys New York History. Thank you, Carl, Don, Greg, and Chris!
