Narcissa Niblack Thorne constructed the meticulously-crafted and thoughtfully furnished period rooms, known as the Thorne Rooms, housed at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her scale of one inch to the foot became the norm for miniature work.

Narcissa Thorne was passionate about collecting miniatures and oversaw skilled artisans that helped produce historically correct objects for her period rooms and dioramas. Thorne rooms gained attention at the 1933-34 Chicago Century of Progress and at the 1939 and 1940 World’s Fairs in San Francisco and New York. The rooms traveled the country.

Although production was painstaking and expensive, and the shows very popular, she never sought remuneration for her work – rather, most exhibitions raised funds for charitable causes.

Her workshop was on Oak Street in Chicago. Renowned miniaturist Eugene J. Kupjack went to work for Narcissa Thorne in 1937. Their team made Thorne rooms and dioramas. Many of these creations were gifts to friends, used for fund raising or sold through The Women’s Exchange of Chicago for charity. The tradition continues, Mr. Kupjack’s sons are miniaturists.

In addition to those in private collections, the Art Institute of Chicago has 68 Thorne rooms, 20 rooms are held by the Phoenix Art Museum and nine by the Knoxville Museum of Art. Several rooms have been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Narcissa Thorne resided in Lake Forest on Ridge Road with her husband James Ward Thorne, an heir to the Montgomery Ward department store family, and two sons Ward and Niblack.