Period room

{{Short description|Room representing a historical period}} [[File:Side Chair MET DT2511.jpg|thumb|Period room entrance hall from the 18th century Van Rensselaer Manor House originally located in Albany, New York - now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection.]] thumb|303x303px|Period kitchen in a tenement house museum A '''period room''' is a display that represents the interior design and decorative art of a particular historical social setting usually in a museum. Though it may incorporate elements of an individual real room that once existed somewhere, it is usually by its nature a composite and fictional piece.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Craven|first=Wayne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1BrBHQfpEcAC&pg=PA119|title=Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society|date=2009|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-06754-5|pages=119|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=What are period rooms, really? –– Minneapolis Institute of Art|url=https://new.artsmia.org/stories/what-are-period-rooms-really/|access-date=2022-02-14|website=new.artsmia.org}}</ref> Period rooms at encyclopedic museums may represent different countries and cultures, while those at historic house museums may represent different eras of the same structure.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-03-21|title=Reconsidering the period room as a museum-made object|url=https://blog.oup.com/2019/03/reconsidering-period-room-museum-made-object/|access-date=2022-02-14|website=OUPblog|language=en}}</ref> As with the glamorization of luxury in costume drama, this can be considered as a conservative genre that traditionally privileges Eurocentric elite views.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Representing the Complicated History of American Interiors|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/collection-insights/2021/period-rooms-history-of-american-interiors|access-date=2022-02-14|website=www.metmuseum.org|date=8 March 2021 }}</ref>

In the 21st century, the focus has shifted toward using period rooms in new ways<ref>{{Cite book |last=Krämer |first=Stefan |title=Period Rooms. Von Zeitreisen und imaginierten Begegnungen im Museum |publisher=Transcript |year=2024 |isbn=978-3-8376-7444-6 |location=Germany |language=German |trans-title=Period Rooms. About Time Travels and Imagined Encounters in Museums}}</ref> or in diversifying them.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Migan|first=Darla|date=2021-11-15|title=Period Rooms Usually Glorify the Aristocracy. With Its New Afrofuturist Room, the Met's Approach Is Different|url=https://news.artnet.com/opinion/met-afrofuturist-period-room-review-2034499|access-date=2022-02-14|website=Artnet News|language=en-US}}</ref>

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==External links== *{{ccat-inline|Period rooms}}

Category:Decorative arts Category:Heritage interpretation Category:Interior design Category:Museology Category:Relocated buildings and structures Category:Rooms