A20: Virginia Dining Room, 1758

c. 1940

Narcissa Niblack Thorne

The wallpaper is perhaps the most elaborate element of this miniature room. In her study of interior decoration sources from the 18th century, Narcissa Thorne learned of the taste among Americans and Europeans for imported Chinese wallpaper. The walls in this space are covered with a hand-painted pattern of birds, trees, and flowers produced in the same manner as the full-scale wallpapers from China 150 years earlier.