A16: Pennsylvania Drawing Room, 1761

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):

16: Pennsylvania Drawing Room, 1761
With this interior, we move back one hundred years from the preceding model to pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia. The chief inspiration for this room was the State Chamber of Mount Pleasant, an ambitious Palladian structure completed in 1761 for Captain John MacPherson, a Scottish privateer. Described by John Adams as “the most elegant seat in Pennsylvania,” it was owned for a time by Benedict Arnold, who would be convicted for treason during the Revolutionary War before he could occupy the house. At the time that Mount Pleasant was being planned, the standard of elegance that prevailed in Georgian England also set the tone for the wealthy residents of the Colonies. Despite the austerity of its Quaker population, Philadelphia boasted numerous splendid mansions decorated luxuriously by the finest craftsmen, many of whom had been trained in England before immigrating to North America. Mount Pleasant is now operated by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and, along with other Colonial structures in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park district, is open to the public.
The rear wall of this interior, with its handsome mantel and side cupboards, is similar to the original. But instead of repeating here the residence’s plain ceiling, Mrs. Thorne incorporated a Rococo ceiling design from the restored front room of the Powel House, installed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Executed by James Crowe in 1770, it illustrates the high level of plasterwork achieved in Philadelphia at this time.
Mrs. Thorne furnished this interior with pieces that are, for the most part, in a style that was known as Chippendale, because of the strong influence on the city’s craftsmen of Thomas Chippendale’s 1754 book The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director (see E–8: English Bedroom of the Georgian Period, 1760–75). The original of the easy chair (or wing chair, as it is called today) standing to the right of the fireplace has been attributed to Benjamin Randolph who, along with William Savery and Jonathan Gostelowe, helped establish the fine reputation of Philadelphia cabinetmakers. Working in walnut and mahogany, these craftsmen became especially celebrated for their skill as carvers.
The door to the left leads to an anteroom furnished with a clock based on several created by David Rittenhouse, who made the clockworks and commissioned the cases from Philadelphia Cabinetmakers.
This room measures 12 x 17 1/2 x 18 7/8 inches.