There is a minia­ture com­mu­nity of hor­rors on the third floor of the Mary­land Med­ical Examiner’s Office. A dis­play of 18 exquis­itely crafted mod­els of actual crime scenes presents grisly vignettes of vio­lent death.

The mod­els were made in the 1940s by Frances Gless­ner Lee, a wealthy, eccen­tric Chicago woman who had been raised on Sher­lock Holmes tales and had a life­long fas­ci­na­tion with sleuthing. The stud­ies were based on actual crime scenes, recon­structed from pho­tographs, sketches and state­ments by wit­nesses and police. Only names and reveal­ing details were changed. The dollhouse-like mod­els are designed on a scale of one foot to one inch, per­fectly pro­por­tioned for an inves­ti­ga­tor six inches tall.

The Nut­shell Stud­ies of Unex­plained Death may be viewed by appoint­ment. For fullest appre­ci­a­tion, bring a small flash­light and a mag­ni­fy­ing glass.

State of Mary­land Med­ical Examiner’s Office
111 Penn Street
Bal­ti­more, MD 21201
410–333-3250
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