18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Invented Modern Forensics (Historical Medical Science and True Crime Book for Adults)

I've started to realize that I don't have a big attention span when it comes to reading about the lives of people. I enjoy reading what they accomplished and how. I didn't know anything about Frances Glessner Lee and her part in pushing for modern forensics- she's a great example in using her wealth and privilege to put forth change and she didn't like taking no for an answer! Hearing about how we still don't have a medical examiner system in many places was shocking; but this goes to show how tv shows, movies and even fictional books aren't an accurate portrayal of reality, sometimes.

The Writer Bruce Goldfarb’s nonfiction book, 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of the Women Who Invited Modern Forensics is a biography of Frances Glessner Lee. Frances Glessner Lee who lived between 1878 and 1962, was a wealthy American woman who was dedicated to building and spreading knowledge of the field of legal medicine, also known as the science of forensics. The book includes a section of notes and an index. The book also included a section of black and white photographs. I read the book on Kindle. The title of the book comes from in the words of Goldfarb the “eighteen incredibly detailed dioramas known as the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death” (Goldfarb 283). The dioramas were used by Lee to teach police officers who took her course on homicide investigation course which was held at Harvard University in Massachusetts. The dioramas are still in use in homicide investigation courses for police officers offered by the Maryland Medical-Legal Foundation in Baltimore in a course named in honor of Frances Glassner Lee (Goldfarb 273). Bruce Goldfarb is the public information officer for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland (Goldfarb 283-284). Goldfarb interacts often with dioramas which are entitled “the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death” (Goldfarb 284-285). I learned a lot from this book. Before I read this book I did not know about the difference between a coroner and a medical examiner. The book is very focused on the United States, but the book mentioned that in the late 19th Century and the early 20th Century, legal medicine was once more developed in Europe (Goldfarb 73). It would be interesting if Goldfarb had given an overview of legal medicine in Europe in the late 19th Century and in the early 20th Century. I found Bruce Goldfarb’s biography of Frances Glessner Lee to be a wonderful introduction to a historical figure and a subject of legal medicine that I do not know much about.