A special aspect of Salisbury House & Gardens as a museum is that the vast majority of what visitors see on display are items the Weeks family acquired for their home back in the 1920s. The family had eclectic and varied tastes, collected objects from all across the globe, and had some even built into the walls of their house. With so many different kinds of objects it can be difficult to build a comprehensive list that doesn’t get too far into the weeds; instead, we’ve broken out the Salisbury House collection into a few broad categories.
Carl and Edith Weeks sought to make their home as historically accurate as possible, and so salvaged several architectural elements from the Salisbury, England area and worked with an antiques dealer named Reginald Mullins to acquire antique art and furniture that matched the aesthetic of their home.
Some notable furnishings and architectural elements are:
The Weeks family’s art collection contains paintings, statues, and other handcrafted items from all over the globe resulting in a mix of aesthetics. This collection is the clearest example of Carl and Edith’s eye for antiques, appreciation for culture, and excellent taste in modern art.
Notable artists in the collection include:
It is safe to say that Carl and Edith Weeks were maximalists. View any historic photograph from their time occupying the home, and you will see that every surface is covered with trinkets, bobbles, and other miscellaneous objects.They had knick-knacks, bric-a-brac, tchotchkes, mementos, keep-sakes, and anything else you might find in your great-grandma’s curio cabinet.
To be more specific, some objects included under this category are:
The Salisbury House archives contain documents regarding the construction of Salisbury House, the acquisition of collection items purchased for the home, documents and ads from The Armand Company (and other related businesses), and select personal documents from members of the Weeks family. As for photographs, most were taken by Carl Weeks and include interior shots 91 Crane St. Salisbury, England; Salisbury House over the last 100 years; and several photographs of the family.
The Boston Tea Party is one of the most iconic moments in the lead up to the American Revolution. It was the result of a few different acts passed by the British parliament that incurred taxes on goods imported to the colonies to recoup the costs of the French and Indian War.
The most notable was the Tea Act of 1773, which set taxes on imported tea and gave the East India Company a monopoly on tea imports to the colonies and the ability to appoint consignees to sell their wares throughout cities such as Boston. The people were livid - Samuel Adams pushed the mantra of “no taxation without representation” - and demanded that consignees in the Boston area resign and send East India ships docked in the harbor back to England without unloading the goods.
The consignees - who had ties to various wealthy merchant families and the governor of Massachusetts - wrote this letter in response to demands to resign. John Hancock read it aloud on December 16, 1773 to an audience of 7,000 at the Old South Church in Boston. Later that night, a group boarded the East India Company ships docked in the harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard.
This item is on loan from the Salisbury House Library Collection at Grinnell College Libraries April and May 2025.
