Drawing Inspiration: The Magic of the Thorne Rooms - Miranda

The 68 Rooms is one of my all time favorite book series. Written by Urbana native (and Campus Middle School for girls cofounder) Marianne Malone, the series focuses on two Chicago sixth graders named Jack and Ruthie. One day they discover a key that allows them to shrink down and enter the Thorne Rooms in the Art Institute of Chicago, which turn out to be more than just rooms just also portals to the time period they represent. Over the course of the four book series they unravel mysteries that had been unsolved for centuries. They are a great read. While the books are aimed at a tween audience, I think if I reread them now I would enjoy them just as much. 


If you have never heard of the Thorne Rooms, you’re missing out. They are these amazing miniature rooms created by Narcissa Thorne in the 1930s to a 1:12 scale. Each room is labelled with a letter and a number. The letter is either E for European (though for some reason, there are a couple Asian rooms with this classification) or A for American. The time periods for each room range from the 1200s all the way up to 1940. There are rooms of everything from a grand cathedral to a royal bedroom to a quiet colonial living room. Perhaps the most astounding thing about the rooms is how intricate they are. Every little detail is made from the material that their larger counterpart would be made of, from the glass on the chandelier all the way down to the wax in the candles.


One thing Malone does best is truly capture the magic of the Thorne Rooms. I was lucky enough to visit them a few years ago, and they were just as amazing as I had imagined them. As you look into every room, it truly does feel as if you are there. As if you really have been transported back in time. Each time I visit them, I find myself looking through the doorways and windows on the edges of the rooms and wondering what’s beyond them. What if there really was a whole world out there? It’s exactly the sense of wonder that inspired Malone to write her wonderful series.


Here are some of the rooms that were in the series:

A1: Massachusetts Living Room and Kitchen
1675-1700

Fun fact, I made my own version of this mini room (A1) for a book report in third grade. I also made little figures of Ruthie and Jack, which my cat broke.



E24: French Salon of the Louis XVI Period
c. 1780


E17: French Bedroom
Late 16th Century


E1: English Great Room of the Late Tudor Period
1550-1603


To see more Thorne Rooms, click here.

If you're ever in Chicago, I highly suggest visiting the exhibit in Gallery 11 on the lower level of the Art Institute.


 

Comments

  1. RoseFebruary 5, 2021 at 6:09 PM

    These rooms seem cool! I'm a bit confused though-- are these like tiny sculpture-things of different types of rooms? And what's on the outside?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Miranda BurgosFebruary 7, 2021 at 9:20 AM

      They're just little dioramas in the wall. https://familytravelck.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Twitter-Monday.jpg
      This is just one but there are a lot along one wall.

      Delete
  2. Jaewoon JungFebruary 5, 2021 at 7:49 PM

    Sounds really similar to the magic tree house series I read as a kid. The miniature rooms seem really detailed. Sounds interesting!

    ReplyDelete

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