The University of Iowa Libraries

Carl Weeks was one of the leading executives in the business life of Iowa. He was born on a farm near Toddville, Iowa, in 1876. At the age of twenty-one, he received a degree in pharmacy and entered the drug field. In 1907 he organized the Flarian Company in Des Moines, Iowa, which in 1915 became the Armand Company. He served as president until his death. In addition to the factory in Des Moines, there are factories in Canada and Mexico and branch offices in France and South America. The line of cosmetics consisted of powders, creams, rouge, lipstick, etc. Mr. Weeks was also the builder of the famous Salisbury House in Des Moines, which is modeled after the King's House in Salisbury, England. The House is valued at over one million dollars and was given by Mr. Weeks to Drake University.

The Carl Weeks file is composed of business correspondence, notes, merchandising and sales promotion ideas, articles, speeches, and advertisements.
 
Much of the business correspondence and articles concerns either Mr. Weeks's refusal to sell to firms who disregard his suggested resale prices, or his backing of the fair trade laws. Over half of the entries are merchandising and sales promotion ideas, including advertisements for the mass media. The remaining papers consist of speech notes and speeches that Mr. Weeks gave throughout the United States.
 
The correspondence is arranged chronologically in the first eight folders (1922-1957) and topically in the remaining seventeen folders. There are 937 entries in the four boxes.

Access: This collection is open for research.

Use: Copyright restrictions may apply; please consult Special Collections staff for further information.

Acquisition: This collection was donated to the University of Iowa Libraries by Carl Weeks in 1959.

Preferred Citation: Carl Weeks Papers, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.

Repository:	University of Iowa Special Collections
Address:	Special Collections Department University of Iowa Libraries Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone:	319-335-5921
Curator:	Greg Prickman
Email:	lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Website:	http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/

This collection is indexed under the following subject terms.

Corporate Names:
Armand Company

Topics:
Advertising
Competition, Unfair
Cosmetics
Cosmetics industry
Merchandising
Price maintenance

Genre/Form of Materials:
Scrapbooks
Speeches

Browse:
Businessmen and Businesses