Visual Art

Amalie R. Rothschild Rock Icons & Images

Don’t miss your opportunity to catch the work of Amalie R. Rothschild, the “unofficial photographer of Woodstock,” at Goya Contemporary Gallery. The documentary-style work captures some of rock’s greatest personalities during the turbulent late ‘60s and early ‘70s, chronicling one of the most iconic periods of American music and history. Through March 2. Goya Contemporary Gallery, 3000 Chestnut Ave.

Literature

Writers LIVE! R. Eric Thomas, Here For It

Park School alum R. Eric Thomas offers the internet his best jokes and hottest takes in his daily humor column, “Eric Reads the News.” Now get a more personal set of tales with his new book of essays, Here for It. The man himself will make a stop at Central Library’s Wheeler Auditorium this month to discuss his childhood between two vastly different neighborhoods, finding love, and the wild world of internet fame. Feb. 20. Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St.

Bruce Goldfarb’s 18 Tiny Deaths

Hear the story of one of Baltimore’s most impactful quirks as Bruce Goldfarb presents his 18 Tiny Deaths, The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics. The 18 tiny deaths refer to the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, a series of painstakingly recreated crime scenes that, at first a hobby for Lee, turned into a teaching tool for generations of criminal investigators. The scenes, now housed Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office, are still used for forensic seminars today. 7-9 p.m. Feb. 15. Atomic Books, 3620 Falls Rd.

Music

Psycho Killers at Union Craft Brewing

Before David Byrne takes the SNL stage this month, get your fix with this tribute to the New Wave icon’s first project: The Talking Heads. The boys of Psycho Killers will be on hand at Union on Valentine’s Day to play hits like “This Must Be The Place” and “Once in a Lifetime,” as well as love songs from other bands’ discographies, throughout the evening. 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. Feb. 14. UNION Craft Brewing, 1700 W. 41st St.

Pleasure For Your Palette: A Colorful Night With Emerging Opera Stars

February is the month for opera, with multiple opportunities from the likes of The Acme Corporation and Opera Alchemy around the city. But for those looking for a survey of the operatic talent Baltimore has to offer, Creative Alliance has gathered a crew of rising stars. In this intimate performance, soprano Victoria Zelefsky, mezzo Taylor Hillary Boykins, tenor Henry William Hubbard, bass Aaron Thacker, and pianist Maria Adele Scott will join together for a night of solo and ensemble work and discussion. 8 p.m. Feb. 28. Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave.

Theatre

MICA Fifth Annual Benefit Drag Show

Great music, creative costumes, lots of glitter, and the chance to support MICA’s LGBTQ scholarships—this drag show truly has it all. Members of the art school’s Faculty and Staff Queer Alliance will join pro kings and queens Miss Sue Nami, Dee Dee Dereon, Venus Festrada, Gadfrie Arbulu, and Chris Jay for this night of fun that helps fund the FASQA Awards, given each year to a a student in the community who demonstrated financial need and another to a student who has shown involvement in and commitment to LGBTQ+ issues. 8-10 p.m. Feb. 28. The Gateway BBOX Theater, 1601 W. Mount Royal Ave.

Film

Open House: True Laurels—A Gallop Through Time

Though they’re not as prevalent as they once were, Baltimore’s arabbers remain an essential part of the city’s cultural identity. On Feb. 22, join True Laurels founder Lawrence Burney for a screening of the documentary We Are Arabbers and a discussion with former members of the trade to discuss the occupation’s past and what can be done to preserve it for the future. 2-4 p.m. Feb. 22. The Baltimore Museum Art, 10 Art Museum Dr.

News

Black Arts District Launches its New Brand

The new Pennsylvania Avenue Black Arts and Entertainment District plans to launch its first branding initiative in style with a party at Shake & Bake Family Fun Center on Feb. 16. Creative Director Tia Newton and her team will be on hand to talk about what’s coming up for the newly minted arts district in addition to plenty of fun events such as dancing, $1 skating and bowling, and themed giveaways.

The Walters Receives $500,000 Endowment from Boshell

The Boshell Foundation, the group responsible for The Walters’ long-running ancient art and architecture lectures, recently announced a $500,000 endowment for the museum to go toward the continuation of the popular series. “We are deeply thankful for their generous endowment gift and look forward to the lectures it will provide in years to come,” Walters Director Julia Marciari-Alexander said in a statement released by the museum. The Boshell Lecture Series was originally launched in 2017, and the newest installment, “How Many Noses Can One Face Have?,” about the evolution of taste when it comes to restoration and repair work, will take place Sunday, April 19.

In 1929, following a surgical procedure, the nature of which isn’t known, heiress Frances Glessner Lee spent a period recuperating alongside George McGrath, the local Suffolk County medical examiner, at a private wing of Massachusetts General Hospital.

By happenstance, McGrath, an old Harvard College friend of Lee’s recently deceased older brother, was receiving treatment for a severe bacterial infection afflicting his hands, a consequence of circulatory problems related to a weak liver and ongoing exposure to formaldehyde and industrial-strength disinfectants.

Despite his infirmity, McGrath regaled Lee, a 51-year-old inheritor of the International Harvester fortune, with tales from his work, which included no less than the cause célèbre murder trials of Italian-American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti; the Great Molasses Disaster of 1919—the massive commercial explosion and subsequent 12,000-ton molasses tsunami that claimed the lives of 21 Bostonians; and the accidental, it would turn out, house fire that killed Babe Ruth’s first wife.

The coincidental convalescence would change Lee’s life—and death investigation everywhere. Through McGrath, Lee became intensely interested in early forensic science. Already an expert craftswoman, she eventually began the painstaking process of building intricate, true-to-life, dollhouse-size crime scenes to train homicide investigators.

After Lee’s death in 1966, the 18 now famous dioramas, known as “The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death,” along with real-time witness statements, were handed over to Maryland’s chief medical examiner, who recognized their value.

Authentic down to the hand-rolled, quarter-inch cigarette butts, the purpose of the models is to help teach detectives how to observe, report, and evaluate crime scenes. (In one instance, Lee took a blowtorch to a small wooden cabin she’d faithfully built to mimic a fire set by a murderer to cover his tracks.)

From the tiny blood splatter patterns to the positions of the five-and-a-half-inch corpses, the gruesome dioramas continue to serve as a key component of the Frances Glessner Lee Homicide Investigation Seminar, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary this April in Baltimore.

The whodunit answers, however, remain a kept secret to protect the learning process. Today, they are known only to Jerry Dziecichowicz, an administrator in the medical examiner’s office, who describes Lee, a brilliant woman who married at 20 after her father forbade her from attending college, as “the patron saint of forensic science.” (Twelve of the 20 victims in Lee’s dioramas depict women murdered in various domestic scenes; make of that what you will.)

In 1943, Lee became the first female police captain in the U.S. when she began working with the New Hampshire State Police. There-after, notes Bruce Goldfarb, the spokesman for the chief examiner’s office and de facto curator of the studies, she preferred to be called Captain Lee.

To her grandchildren, however, Goldfarb adds, Lee, who often wore all black, was nicknamed “the Tarantula.”

“She was a sweet woman, though,” says Goldfarb, who penned 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics, due out in hardcover next month.

“You see it in her correspondence. She was the type who would send her nephew money if he got good grades.”

The Nutshell Studies have gained such notoriety, inspired by TV shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, in recent years that a rare public display of the dioramas for three months at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery attracted more than 100,000 visitors.

Occasionally, the curious stop by the medical examiner’s office as well. “A couple of years ago, two women grabbed me in the hallway and wanted to know the answer to one scene,” Goldfarb recounts. “I explained that I wasn’t allowed to say and it wasn’t really the point, which was to observe, document, and interpret the details. They didn’t pay any attention to me.

As soon as I finished, one woman turns to the other and says, ‘I think the husband did it.’”

Bruce Goldfarb will present his new book, “18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics,” at Med Chi, 1211 Cathedral St., Baltimore, Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m. and at Atomic Books, 3620 Falls Road, Baltimore, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m.

More images of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death can be found here.