# A26: Virginia Dining Room, c. 1800

- By: Narcissa Niblack Thorne (American, 1882–1966)
- Date: c. 1940
- Medium: Miniature room, mixed media
- Classification: Miniature room
- Dimensions: External: 62.9 × 94.7 × 96.6 cm (24 3/4 × 37 1/4 × 38 in.); Internal (main room only): 33.1 × 62.9 × 69.3 cm (13 × 24 3/4 × 27 1/4 in.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/45385)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/1fd2d13b0525ba6dd06b3e9eb37f2770.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):

26: Virginia Dining Room, c. 1800 Mrs. Thorne designated this interior as “Jeffersonian,” although she was careful not to represent it as a model of the dining room at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson’s residence from his twenties until the end of his life. Jefferson began to build Monticello in 1772, bringing his young wife, Martha, there before the house was completed. In the…

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0