# A6: New Hampshire Dining Room, 1760

- By: Narcissa Niblack Thorne (American, 1882–1966)
- Date: c. 1940
- Medium: Miniature room, mixed media
- Classification: Miniature room
- Dimensions: External: 45.8 × 79.4 × 64.8 cm (18 × 31 1/4 × 25 1/2 in.); Internal (main room only): 24.8 × 40.7 × 50.8 cm (9 3/4 × 16 × 20 in.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/45330)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/f6a1ab39fe4117bb8632acf1ff4d899f.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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):

6: New Hampshire Dining Room, 1760 Mrs. Thorne based this interior on a room from the Wentworth-Gardner house in Portsmouth, which was considered a perfect example of an American Georgian residence, a study in symmetry, rationalism, and proportion. The restrained paneling of Mrs. Thorne’s interior is enlivened by the fine corner cupboard, with its carved half-shell interior, and by the scenic wallpaper.…

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0