A1: Massachusetts Living Room and Kitchen, 1675-1700
c. 1940
Medium
Miniature room, mixed media
Dimensions
Interior, Scale 1 inch = 1 foot: 22 × 46 × 35.6 cm (8 5/8 × 18 1/8 × 14 in.)
Classification
miniature
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
45316
Art Historical Context
Narcissa Niblack Thorne’s miniature room offers a captivating glimpse into domestic life in colonial Massachusetts between 1675 and 1700. Created around 1940 at a precise one-inch-to-one-foot scale, the mixed-media model reconstructs a combined living room and kitchen typical of early New England homes. Thorne, renowned for her meticulously detailed miniature interiors, used this format to preserve and interpret historical environments that might otherwise be lost to time. The work belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago’s Applied Arts of Europe collection and reflects the artist’s broader pr...
About the Artist
Narcissa Niblack Thorne · 1882–1966
Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882–1966) was born on May 2 in Vincennes, Indiana, the eldest child of William Niblack and Frances Caldwell Niblack. Her family relocated to Chicago during her childhood, where she received a patchwork education: homeschooled by a governess, public schooling from age eleven, private classes, and finishing at the elite Kenwood Institute in Hyde Park. Extensive family trave...