Please note – This is the life story of Laura Weeks (Carl Weeks’ mother) as written by her and includes some sensitive material regarding treatment of minorities, physical injury, farm life, animal death, and poverty. Reader discretion is advised.
The Weeks collected a wide variety of art and objects during their life time, and as the owners of Salisbury House used the many rooms to display their wares. In order to compile such a vast and unique collection, Carl in particular, worked with a number of dealers from around the world – today’s objects came from the Asian Antique Dealer, Edward Barrett.
In the summer of 1923, Carl Weeks was venturing home after a day at the Armand Company factory and came upon workers tearing up High Street, located in downtown Des Moines. High Street had been approved for new paving in February of 1923 to improve grading and make safer intersections.
Carl Weeks lived during an innovative and quickly evolving time, seeing major wars and technological inventions. The late1800s and early 1900s saw humanity change drastically, and so this post is split into several sections to look at the significant world moments in the life of Salisbury House creator, Carl Weeks. The first of these sections to be discussed are the early life years (1876-1900).
Carl and Edith Weeks were fans of the Italian/American artist, Joseph Stella, and during their tenure as owners of Salisbury House, collected four of Stella’s paintings – King of the Beggars, Tree of My Life, The Birth of Venus, and Apotheosis of the Rose. Today, the Salisbury House Foundation retains in its collection three beautiful Joseph Stella paintings. Each painting dates to a different year and illustrates the evolution of his artistic style.
In our last post about heraldry and the coats of arms found around Salisbury House, we did some looking into the hatchment hanging in the Great Hall where there is an “escutcheon”. Today, we will be looking at the escutcheon a bit further.
For those unfamiliar, heraldry is the study of family crests and coats of arms, and like anything else deeply studied, it can be a bit complicated. From understanding the rule of tinctures to scrolling through rolls of arms, we at Salisbury House have been doing a deep dive into the crests and coats of arms found throughout the house.
October through December 2020, a copy of the Den Geheelen Bibel – which translates from Dutch to Holy Bible – will be on display in the Salisbury House Library. This Bible was published in 1553 and was one of the oldest religious books in the Weeks family collection. Published after the Reformation (1517), this Bible was created during a time when Protestantism was gaining strength in the Netherlands. The book is bound in vellum or alumtawed and has red stamping around the foredge. Inside are multiple wood-cut printed pictures.
Salisbury House Blog