A Seat at the Table: Reimagining Period Rooms
Reimagine museum period rooms by centering underrepresented histories, fostering inclusive storytelling and deeper visitor engagement.
Rhode Island School of Design Thesis Award for Exhibition Design
Featured in the RISD Grad Show 2025
Read the full thesis publication here
Expanding the Narrative
Stepping into a museum’s period room can feel like traveling back in time, offering an immersive glimpse into domestic life. Yet these displays often romanticize the lives of the Eurocentric elite while overlooking the experiences of marginalized communities. They rarely acknowledge the artisans, merchants, and laborers whose work made these decorative objects possible.
Stepping into a museum’s period room can feel like traveling back in time, offering an immersive glimpse into domestic life. Yet these displays often romanticize the lives of the Eurocentric elite while overlooking the experiences of marginalized communities. They rarely acknowledge the artisans, merchants, and laborers whose work made these decorative objects possible.
What is a Period Room?
a display that represents an interior space from a particular historical period
Arrangement of Objects
Objects are arranged in functional and aesthetic groupings that mirror their original use in domestic settings, rather than being isolated in cases or on pedestals.
Objects are arranged in functional and aesthetic groupings that mirror their original use in domestic settings, rather than being isolated in cases or on pedestals.
Architectural Enclosure
The room is enclosed by architectural elements—walls, ceilings, fireplaces, moldings, and windows—that replicate or are salvaged from historical interiors.
The room is enclosed by architectural elements—walls, ceilings, fireplaces, moldings, and windows—that replicate or are salvaged from historical interiors.
Historical Coherence
The room must clearly aim to represent a specific time period, with objects, architecture, and decor connected—however loosely or interpretively—to a particular historical moment.
The room must clearly aim to represent a specific time period, with objects, architecture, and decor connected—however loosely or interpretively—to a particular historical moment.
Museum Context
Despite their domestic appearance, period rooms are curated museum constructs with display choices and narrative framing influenced by the museum’s mission, audience, and collecting history.
Despite their domestic appearance, period rooms are curated museum constructs with display choices and narrative framing influenced by the museum’s mission, audience, and collecting history.
Potential Opportunities
Current period rooms, often staged and shaped by incomplete records, blur the line between authenticity and interpretation, risking the reinforcement of cultural myths. With my design, I propose reimagining the room itself—asking how its spatial dynamics might be reinterpreted to create a new context.
The Site
Pendleton House at the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island, is the nation’s first museum wing dedicated to American decorative arts. The space now presented as a dining room was originally the kitchen in Charles Pendleton’s home. Its transformation reflects a deliberate erasure of working spaces in favor of showcasing leisure and refinement.
Focusing on the Dining Room as my site, I examined how its objects reveal global histories of exploitation and exchange. The mahogany used in the furniture carries
with it the weight of colonial conquest and forced labor. From the 18th to 19th centuries, mahogany was used for luxurious furniture symbolizing wealth and status. It was harvested through the violent exploitation of enslaved Africans in regions such as Jamaica, Honduras, Santo Domingo, and Cuba, as part of a broader system of extractive transatlantic trade.
At the far end of the room, two display cabinets feature Chinese export porcelain. In response to rising Western demand during this period, Chinese artisans adapted traditional techniques to suit European tastes, producing objects shaped by asymmetrical exchange and colonial perceptions of Chinese culture.
At the far end of the room, two display cabinets feature Chinese export porcelain. In response to rising Western demand during this period, Chinese artisans adapted traditional techniques to suit European tastes, producing objects shaped by asymmetrical exchange and colonial perceptions of Chinese culture.
Final Concept:
To Reveal
To Reveal
Revealing involves uncovering new stories that delve deeper than the surface-level aesthetics of a period room. This concept of ‘reveal’ inspired the transformation of the room’s walls and floor—reimagining the space as if a layer is being lifted, allowing visitors to see what lies underneath.
Histories Uncovered
On the underside of the curved structure, new images offer insights into the histories behind the period objects. One is an illustration showing the port of Canton as merchants prepare goods for export. The other is a historical engraving that depicts enslaved individuals harvesting mahogany in Honduras. Placed in contrast to the period room, these visuals prompt visitors to consider the broader global contexts behind familiar objects.
Making Room
The wall between the dining room and library is removed, creating a single, expansive space. With three different entry points, the layout encourages free movement and exploration, breaking away from a fixed, linear path.
A Seat at the Table
This reimagined space breaks down both physical and conceptual barriers, inviting new perspectives—shifting heights, unexpected angles, and a dialogue between contemporary artworks and historically overlooked narratives. Ultimately, it invites viewers to consider what stories are being told—and which have yet to be heard.