# A28: South Carolina Drawing Room, 1775–1800

- By: Narcissa Niblack Thorne (American, 1882–1966)
- Date: c. 1940
- Medium: Miniature room, mixed media
- Classification: Miniature room
- Dimensions: External: 62.9 × 139.1 × 95.9 cm (24 3/4 × 54 3/4 × 37 3/4 in.); Internal (main room only): 31.2 × 69.3 × 55.9 cm (12 1/4 × 27 1/4 × 22 in.)
- Culture: United States
- Credit line: Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/45392)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/d12dd7689c43b35c598d363d0a75832e.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):

28: South Carolina Drawing Room, 1775–1800 Founded by English settlers, Charleston has occupied since 1680 its present site at the head of the bay formed by the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers. Despite a devastating fire in 1740, the city, by the latter part of the eighteenth century, had become the commercial and cultural center of the South. Its population augmented by French Huguenots…

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0