London show dissects history of forensic science

Forensic science, which has fascinated generations with its unravelling of gruesome crime mysteries, is being put under the microscope in an exhibition of real criminal investigations in London.
      
"Forensics: The anatomy of crime" at the Wellcome Collection traces the art of forensic inquiry, spanning 18th-century Japanese artistic studies of decomposition to Victorian murder cases.
      
One of the hundreds of exhibition pieces on display from February 26 to June 21 is a miniature crime scene of disturbing realism laid out in a dollhouse.
      
The front door is ajar, a newspaper rests casually on a chair, while on a sofa lies a corpse.
      
Created in the 1940s by investigative pioneer Frances Glessner Lee, the dollhouse poses the question "what happened, and who is the murderer?"       

It was used to teach investigators to use more systematic approaches to gathering evidence, and is still used as an example by forensic investigators.
      
Such approaches to solving crime became prominent in the 19th and 20th centuries and continue to inspire popular novels and films.
      
"Ever since the early crime novels of the 19th century, the cultural fascination with death and detection has continued to grow," said museum curator Lucy Shanahan.
      
The interest is "encapsulated in the multitude of popular television dramas that have brought the fictional world of violent crime, police procedure and cutting edge forensic techniques into the comfort of our living rooms".
      
The trend is nothing new.        

The exhibition contains an 1888 scale map of "Mitre Square", where the still-unidentified London serial killer known as Jack the Ripper murdered one of his...