Of dolls and murder : A crime scene dollhouse documentary.

This American-made documentary looks at early forensic science. In the US in the 1930s and 1940s, Frances Glessner Lee, the 'grand-mother' of forensic medicine, created a series of miniature crime scenes or dioramas which still have significant bearing on the training of detectives in how to analyse crime scenes. On her death she endowed enough money for a chair in forensic medicine to be created at Harvard University. As a wealthy aristocrat, she had the resources to create the exquisite miniatures, although she also created the dolls and their clothes herself. She even researched in city morgues to ensure they were convincing in death. A producer (Naren Shankar) from the hit US television series, CSI comments. There are 18 Nutshell studies; 4 were on display at the National Library of Medicine but they are not regularly accessible by the public. The documentary goes to the 'Bass' Anthropological Research Facility also known as 'The Body Farm' which scientifically studies body decomposition.