Makenna Kutzschebauch is interested in forensic science and murder mysteries. She turned those interests into an award-winning documentary about American forensic scientist Frances Glessner Lee.
“Dioramas of Death: Reforming Forensice Medicine in the U.S.”, a 10-minute documentary about Lee, earned Kutzschebauch third-place honors at a regional National History Day competition held in March at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She will compete in the state National History Day event on Saturday, April 6, at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
“I’m super excited and grateful that I have the chance to compete in the state competition, and I’ve been working hard to revise my project,” said the sophomore from Benton. “The regional competition was really fun. The exhibit hall was open for viewing, and it was exciting to see the work of other students. When I placed third, I was elated and eager for the chance to improve my project.”
Lee was a forensic scientist who created the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, 20 dioramas of true-crime scenes recreated in minute detail at dollhouse scale.
“She taught police officers observation skills with these scenes through weeklong, intensive seminars,” Kutzschebauch said. “Before her, there was nowhere in the U.S. to be educated in forensic medicine, and police officers rarely knew what forensic medicine was.”
Lee endowed the creation of the Department of Legal Medicine within Harvard Medical School in 1931, the first such department in the country. It eventually opened in 1940. Kutzschebauch said she became fascinated by Lee and her accomplishments in forensic science after seeing Lee mentioned in “The Box in the Woods” by Maureen Johnson.
Her research for the documentary included reading a biography of Lee, “18 Tiny Deaths” by Bruce Goldfarb, as well as a book by Corinne May Botz that included a collection of pictures of the Nutshell Studies. That was just part of her research.
“I read newspapers from the time and dozens of articles about her. I also interviewed Bruce Goldfarb, who, along with writing the only book-length biography on Lee, also worked with the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death at Maryland’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner,” Kutzschebauch said.
From there, she wrote a script and recorded herself reading it. Then she found images and videos for the documentary’s visuals and added music. Her roommate helped her record a short intro.
Dr. Zachery Cowsert, a history instructor at ASMSA, praised Kutzschebauch’s efforts to create the documentary.
“I’ve been deeply impressed by the depth of her scholarly research and the high quality of her documentary editing,” Cowsert said. “Neflix worthy!”
National History Day is an educational, nonprofit organization that promotes history and civics education, he said. The National Park Service and the National Endowment for the Humanities are among the organization’s and competition’s sponsors.
The competition is open to middle- and high-school students in five categories: papers, exhibits, performances, documentaries and websites. The Central Region competition at which ASMSA competed includes Hot Springs, Benton, Bryant and Little Rock area schools. The categories are divided into junior and senior divisions along with individual and group divisions. The top three winners in each category advance to the state competition.
“As you can imagine, it is one of the most competitive districts in the state,” Cowsert said. “For example, there were a total of twelve entries alone in Makenna’s category of senior individual documentaries.”
Cowsert said Kutzschebauch’s previous experience in competing in National History Day competitions has been helpful in helping him understand how the competition works and how the school might be able to involve more students. One other ASMSA student participated in this year’s regional competition, but he would like to see that number grow.
“She’s blazing a new path for history and humanities here at ASMSA and deserves immense credit for it,” he said.
Kutzschebauch was complementary of Cowsert as well.
“I want to thank ASMSA and specifically Dr. Cowsert for being my sponsor and supporting me and my project. I hope that next year more ASMSA students will participate in National History Day!” she said.