Living room and kitchen
(early Massachusetts house, 1675­1700)
c. 1930­40
Mixed media
21.9 x 46 x 35.6 cm
Gift of Mrs. James Ward Thorne, 1942.481

Sixty-eight miniature rooms by Mrs. James Ward Thorne are at the Art Institute. This one represents an interior of a home built about fifty years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. By then, sturdily-built houses resembled those left behind in England. 

In this kind of combined kitchen and living room, the fireplace served as the sole means both of heating and cooking. Ceilings were low to conserve heat. Where is the child’s chair? How many pewter mugs hang on the open shelves?