miniatures in the big city

The Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago is a collection of meticulously constructed living rooms from different eras of British and American history, commissioned by Mrs. James Thorne of Chicago in the 1930s. The 68 rooms silently tell all sorts of stories of the inhabitants of noble British drawing rooms in the 19th Century and more humble Puritan multi-use spaces.
I love the arched alcoves and all the molding in this drawing room:

A23: Virginia Drawing Room, 1754, c. 1940

And the shocking orange of the airy curtains in this bedroom:

A32: Louisiana Bedroom, 1800-50, c. 1940

And the tonal ambers and saffrons in this dining room:

A14: Pennsylvania Drawing Room, 1834-36, c. 1940

And the neutral zen of this foyer:

E-11: English Entrance Hall of the Georgian Period, c. 1775, c. 1932

Seeing the Thorne Miniature Rooms a few years ago struck a serious chord for me. I cherish the dollhouse that my mom got me for Christmas in 1993, the painstaking construction of which my older brother took on as a hobby when he was in high school. He stained the wood floors and layed them strip by strip, added electric wiring for the chandeliers, wallpapered the hallways in my favorite cream-and-gold fleur de lis pattern, caulked the brick apron that runs the perimeter of the house, and carefully painted each spindle of the porch (which my niece has subsequently knocked down). The house is still a work in progress (yes, still) but once the "construction" is done, it will be filled with all the beautiful pieces my mom has purchased over the years, on business trips and in our favorite little shops around DC. She splurged on gold leaf-trimmed living room furniture, traditional swaths of greenery bedecked with faux fruit to hang over the mantle at Christmas, a set of "wicker" furniture to mimic the Wicker Room in my grandparents' old house, a butcher's block for the 1950s (or so) kitchen, a coat rack complete with little cane hat. It was sometime still in the 1990s when my favorite aunt gifted me an enormous, exquisite collection of miniature food--a tin of loose bisquits, jars of lemon curd, a copper pot full of boiled potatoes, another dish of beef stew, ice cream sundaes, canned goods, and my personal favorite, tacos.

The saga that is the evolution of my dollhouse makes me appreciate all the more Mrs. Thorne's attention to detail and the imagination involved in her project, even when building with such historical accuracy. And if there's one thing I can really appreciate about the Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute, it's the lack of miniature people. If you've ever seen the tiny dolls meant to fit into dollhouses, you know that they always fall short of the images in your head. There's no reason to complete the daydream. All images - Art Institute of Chicago