A21: Virginia Parlor, 1758–87

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):

21: Virginia Parlor, 1758–87
This interior was inspired by the west parlor of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home for most of his adult life. Overlooking the Potomac River, the Fairfax County property had been in Washington’s family for eighty-three years when he inherited it in 1761. He quickly began to make improvements, redoubling his efforts after his marriage, soon thereafter, to Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow. Further additions and alterations to the house and grounds contributed to the style and comfort of the estate, as did the importation of fine furniture, rugs, and china from England. Later, Washington complained that “[these purchases] swallowed before I knew where I was all the money I got by marriage . . . nay more, brought me into debt.” In 1858, when maintenance of Mount Vernon proved too burdensome for Washington’s descendants, and both the state of Virginia and the federal government declined to assume responsibility for the property, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association was formed to preserve “the estate, properties and relics . . . and to open the same to the inspection of all who love the cause of liberty and revere the name of Washington.”
Mrs. Thorne’s interior imitates the appearance of the parlor during Washington’s later years. The mantel and overmantel—with the family arms mounted between the scrolls of the pediment—are mid-eighteenth century in style. The doorway’s classical elements reveal a Palladian influence. The settee reflects a model dating from 1790 depicted in Wallace Nutting’s Furniture Treasury (1928–33). The high-back armchair by the fireplace, known at that time as a lolling chair and later as a Martha Washington chair, also features the tapered, straight legs typical of the American Federal period.
The Pembroke table set for tea appears to have been modeled after an original in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the piano after one in the collection of the Antiquarian Society of Concord, Massachusetts. The silver tea tray is a copy of one of Martha Washington’s most prized possessions. The tea set on the tray is meant to represent Chinese export ware, which was popular at the time. The mirror was copied from a fine Federal example dating from between 1790 and 1800. The rug is a reproduction of a carpet presented to Washington that had been made at the French Aubusson manufactory. A Haydn quartet rests on the music stand, whose base was derived from that of a pole screen. The portrait at the rear is a reproduction of Gilbert Stuart’s Washington at Dorchester Heights, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
In reality the windows of this room overlook the Potomac River, although Mrs. Thorne altered the vantage point to afford a view of the red cypress shingles distinctive of the roof of Mount Vernon.
This room measures 11 3/8 x 17 1/8 x 18 5/8 inches.