The Colonial Bedroom, History

Mrs. Fisher's recreation is an interesting one for the style within, as it underscores the blend and cohesion of two collaborating revivals of the 19th and 20th centuries: the Colonial Revival and the Queen Anne style.

The Queen Anne and Colonial Revival were coexisiting interior design movements that shaped and complimented each other. Emerging in 1870s Philadelphia, the Colonial Revival celebrated early American architecture and design---like that we saw in the Pennsylvania Dutch Kitchen. Nearly at the same time, around the 1880s, the Queen Anne style became a symbol of national heritage and identity, a flair for asymmetry, ornamentation, and romanticism. The choices often drew more from English roots than colonial ones. 

The Colonial Revival

The Queen Anne Revival Style

We see in Mrs. Fisher's room, the beautiful overlap of the two aesthetics. Where the clean and symmetrical lines of colonial architecture were embellished by the Queen Anne's attention to the Victorian era details.

With its four-poster canopy bed, highboy dresser, and floral upholstered chair, the Colonial Room coalesces between practicality and modest wealth. Textiles such as lace alongside the wood grain creates a cozy, lived-in feeling to mirror how families in the colonial era were blending utility with comfort.

These revival periods brought about a resurgence of recognized American design, ladder-back and Windsor chairs or canopy beds. However, they were made modern by embellishments of floral wallpaper and braided rugs that evoked comfort alongside practicality.