A13: New England Bedroom, 1750–1850

Narcissa Niblack Thorne, creator of the Thorne Rooms, combined a deep knowledge of design history with a vivid imaginative sensibility. In the 1930s, she assembled a team of skilled artisans in Chicago to construct a series of intricately detailed interiors at the scale of one inch to one foot (1:12).

Conceived as a visual history of interior design, the rooms are at once scholarly and inventive. Meticulously researched and carefully composed, they balance historical accuracy with artistic interpretation. Each atmospheric interior feels like a stage set awaiting its occupants—two parts fantasy, one part history, and entirely absorbing.

Entry from Fannia Weingartner, Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2nd ed. (The Art Institute of Chicago, 2004):

13: New England Bedroom, 1750–1850
Like the preceding interior, this model represents a type rather than a specific room—a New England bedroom less grand than one that might have been found in the residence of a rich merchant but furnished more substantially than one in a fisherman’s cottage. The lack of specificity and the long time span suggested in the dates gave Mrs. Thorne considerable latitude in her choice of decoration and furnishing styles. A variety of sources, including Samuel Chamberlain’s Beyond New England Thresholds (1937), Edgar George Miller, Jr.’s American Antique Furniture (1937), and Janet Waring’s Early American Stencils (1939), provided Mrs. Thorne with models to imitate.
The simple partition paneling of the fireplace wall and the broad floor boards reflect the style of the second half of the eighteenth century. Probably from a somewhat later period—perhaps the first quarter of the nineteenth century—is the striking stencil decoration of the plaster walls. It is modeled after an original pattern found perfectly preserved on the wall surface of an old cupboard in the Abner Goodale house in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Such designs were traditional and were executed by itinerant stencil artists.
The handsome tester bed with its canopy, the curtains, and the high chest of drawers were inspired by examples depicted in the Handbook of the Concord Antiquarian Society (1937). Both this high chest and the dressing table reflect mid-eighteenth century types, while the upholstered chair derives from an original dated 1778 in the Abner Goodale house. All three pieces, then, would have been considered old-fashioned during most of the period covered by this room.But this was not unusual. It was customary to move out-of-date furniture from public rooms to bedrooms. In this interior, the early pieces have been supplemented by reproductions of a Boston rocker (near the bed) and sewing table (to the left of the fireplace), which were not commonly used until the 1840s. The washstand with basin and ewer represented in the far left corner was standard equipment in bedrooms.
The bedspread and canopy were the work of Mrs. Thorne, a skilled needleworker. The mantel ornaments, vases of flowers, and embroidery in progress on the stand to the left of the upholstered chair lend this interior a sense of life.
This room measures 8 1/4 x 19 1/4 x 19 inches.