Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RD09,6-00789ROO1200160009-3 SECRET/NOFORN PROJECT SUN STREAK WARNING NOTICE: INTELLIGENCE SOURCES AND METHODS INVOLVED ------------------------------------------------------------------- PROJECT NUMBER: 0146 SESSION NUMBER: 01 DATE OF SESSION: 26 SEPT 90 DATE OF REPORT: 26 SEPT 90 START: 1000 END: 1030 METHODOLOGY: ERV VIEWER IDENTIFIER: 052 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. (S/NF/SK) MISSION: To access and describe the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Dublin Gallery of Art in Knoxville, Tennessee. 2. (SINFISK) VIEWER TASKING: To access and describe the site in the target envelope. 3. (SINFISK) COMMENTS: No inclemencies noted. A Summary of Information is attached to this report. 4. (SINFISK) EVALUATION: 3 S. (S/NFISK) SEARCH EVALUATION: HANDLE VIA SKEET CHANNELS ONLY SECRET/NOFORN CLASSIFIED BY: DIA (DT) DECLASSIFY ON: OADR Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO1200160009-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/08: C IA-RDP96-00789 ROO 1200160009-3 U NCLASS I FIED WORKING PAPER 0/'16 Target, Date: 26 SEP 90 Time: 1035-1050 Viewer: 052 Session: 01. '~-"UMMARY OF INFORMATION: The target is a"-~2,ture. --',It is tall, narrow, yet. wide, and made of brick. It is iocated far away. There are people inside. One female person has a white face and is lying down, as iE she were dead. IL is bright in here and there is a lot of glass, some of it is curved, while other is dome shaped. There is something that is linked together, like a chain. People are ee, to expand, and to grow. It makes me think oE(A museum-, out. it is creepy. There was something f y everything went dark, as if someone had turned out -the lights. There is a large staircase with steps going up. It has sharp corners and turns. There is a lot of wood here. Going upstairs, I can see three people walking by. They are all lined up in a row, one picks something up and they co6t'inue''walking. Something is dome shaped and there is something odd about the ceiling-.--- IL is either real low or very high. Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO1200160009-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO1200160009-3 70 Q 11--~ i~ 9=:> Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO1200160009-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/08 CIA-RDP96-00789ROO1200160009-3 Approved For Release 2000/08/08 CIA-RDP96-00789ROO1200160009-3 CPYRGHT Each of the nine Thorne Miniature Rooms at Knoxville's Dulin Gallery of Art portrays a various style of European orA merican design. A Nfiniature Look At Grand Design At Knoxville's Dulin Gallery of Art, it's hard to resist the temptation to press your nose right up against the glass of the Thome Miniature Rooms exhibit. Here, every inch represents a foot. There are railings to lean against as you study the tiny details. There are even step stools for young visitors to stand on. Obviously, the gallery encourages these moments of look- ing, moments that are worth the effort. The mood in this upstairs room of the Dulin brings back memories of childhood dollhouses. But this is art, or more specifi- cally, it is a study of various eras of Ameri- can and European decorative styles. You see a Federal dining room, a Victorian parlor, a New England bedroom, an American summer kitchen, and even a room from 16th-century Spain. The range is broad. And so was the collection of miniature furniture and accessories assem- bled by Mrs. James Ward Thorne, the woman whose hobby led to the creation of these tiny rooms in the early 1930's. Mrs. Thorne always thought in small terms, although the impact of her minia- ture rooms is grand. As a child, she doted on dollhouses. As a young girl, she col- lected 18th-century furniture samples, themselves executed in miniature so trav- eling salesmen could easily display their fines. And as an adult traveler, Mrs. Thorne scoured both sides of the Atlantic for anything of diminutive proportions: an- tique miniatures, scraps of fabric with tiny patterns, everyday remnants of lacy wrought iron, and even colorful box tops that could be made into important details of the period rooms. When reality failed her, imagination took over. You'll see that some curtains are actually delicate linen handkerchiefs. A rug here and there was snipped from a petit point evening bag. A statuesque bust, poised atop a pedestal base, was once the ivory chess queen on a game board. And the candies are just tips of kitchen toothpicks, painted white. It's almost impossible to single out the improvised appointments from the many items skillfully created by master crafts- men. Stunning scaled-down reproductions of Chinese Chippendale and Duncan 40 Southern Living with mahog- any furnishings copied from Metropolitan Museum of Art collections. Tiny blue-and- white delft pottery items, a little Toby jug, and ivory-handled cutlery are perfect in their resemblance to real-life counterparts. When Mrs. Thorne first assembled her treasures into their proper groupings, there were 29 scenes in all. In 1962, the Dulin acquired nine rooms from the original set of Thorne Miniatures, be- coining the only gallery in the Southeast to own part of the collection. Other rooms may be seen in Phoenix and Chicago. The miniature rooms are only part of the Dulin's story, though. Down the gallery's winding staircase with its red velvet handrail is an elegant entry foyer, with rooms shooting off in four directions. Here, the works of masters are rotated with the artistic accomplishments of regional painters and craftspeople. The artwork is displayed much as it would have been when the wealthy Dulin family first occupied this Neoclassical house back in 1917. Mrs. Eugenia Bell Dulin commissioned noted architect John Russell Pope to de- sign her dream home on a bluff overlook- ing a slight bend in the Tennessee River. Pope, who also designed the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., never visited Tennessee to see the Du- hns' finished house. But the people of Knoxville have gotten to know and admire the house. Mrs. Dulin proudly entertained there-one diarist of the era reported that the newly completed home was known to all as the "exposition palace." Following her death in 1961, Mrs. Dulin's heirs decided to truly carry out the exposition palace theme, opening the building to East Tennesseans for use as a regional art center. Today, Eugenia Bell Dulin's portrait occupies a prominent spot in the home she loved, greeting visitors and seeming to sense their delight as they wander through its collections of art. To learn more, write the Dulin Gallery of Art, 3100 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, Tennessee 37919; or call (615) 525-6101. roved For Release 2000/08/08 - C.IA-RDP96-00789 ROO 12001,60009-3 A miniature look atan American summer kitchen of the late 1800's shows such details as a good luck horseshoe over the door and a cat by the coal-burning stove. Photographs: Kim McRae