View XML QR Code

Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff photographs and other material, circa 1890-1994

Overview of the Collection

Collector
Plestcheeff, Guendolen Carkeek, 1892-1994
Title
Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff photographs and other material
Dates
circa 1890-1994 (inclusive)
Quantity
4 boxes and 1 oversize folder, including 235 photographs and 1 album, ( )
Collection Number
1995.71
Summary
Photographs, papers and ephemera related to Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff and the Carkeek family
Repository
Museum of History & Industry, Sophie Frye Bass Library

P.O. Box 80816
Seattle, WA
98108
Telephone: 2063241126 x102
library@mohai.org
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to the public by appointment.

Languages
English.
Return to Top

Biographical Note

Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff was born in Seattle in 1892 at the First Hill mansion home of her parents, British-born Morgan and Emily Carkeek.

Born in Redruth, England, Morgan J. Carkeek emigrated to the United States in 1866. Carkeek married Emily Gaskill, also from England, in 1877, and the couple settled in Seattle in 1885. Morgan Carkeek was an accomplished stonemason and successful building contractor who built several of Seattle's early stone buildings, such as the Dexter Horton Bank, and large office buildings, including the Burke and Haller buildings. Carkeek built the family mansion in 1884 on Seattle's First Hill, at the southeast corner of Madison and Boren Streets, at the time one of Seattle's most fashionable neighborhoods. Emily Carkeek hosted many society events at the mansion, where she also founded the Seattle Historical Society on November 13, 1911 with the first “Founders' Day” ball, with guests dressed in historic costumes related to early Seattle. The party became an annual, invitation-only event, to which guests were asked to bring artifacts or documents related to Seattle history. In 1918, Morgan Carkeek donated land for a city park on Pontiac Bay on Lake Washington at Sand Point, designating a portion of the property for a museum to house the growing Seattle Historical Society collection. Such a building was never realized and the park was displaced in 1926 by the Sand Point Naval Air Station. Morgan Carkeek donated his compensation payment back to the City toward the purchase of land in Piper's Canyon for a new park, the present day Carkeek Park.

Guendolen was the second of two Carkeek children. Her older brother Vivian, born in 1879, was a graduate of the first University of Washington Law School class in 1901 and practiced law in Seattle. Guendolen attended elementary school at the old Pacific School in Seattle, and at age 13 was sent to Europe, first to a French school in England, and afterward to finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Shortly after the teenaged Guendolen's return from Europe, she met dashing young Italian diplomat Paulo Brenna, who was serving as the Italian consul in Seattle. In 1921, young Guendolen and Brenna married in London, then moved to France where Brenna served on an international body for postwar reconstruction. She and Brenna took full advantage of all that Paris had to offer--theater, opera, museums, parties-- sometimes attending several events in one evening. Guendolen fell in love with the city, a second home which she would return to again and again throughout her life.

Shortly afterward, Brenna was named Italian minister to the new Republic of Estonia. After a brief stay in Brenna's hometown of Rome, the couple moved to Reval (now Tallinn), the Estonian capital. During this period, Estonia was home to many refugee Russian aristocrats escaping Bolshevism. Among them was a tall young man from Moscow named Theodor Plestcheeff who had, after several failed attempts, succeeded in escaping across the border using the identification papers of a sympathetic Russian policeman. Plestcheeff was from an aristocratic family related to the noble Stroganov family on his mother's side, and had once served in the court of Czar Nicholas II. Guendolen met Plestsheeff through mutual friends, and discovered that they shared many interests and tastes. Plestcheeff knew a great deal about Russian art and antiquities and introduced Guendolen to the world of Russian arts and crafts, particularly Russian porcelains, which she began to collect.

Guendolen's marriage to Brenna ended in 1928. Rather than returning to Seattle as her family wished, Guendolen moved to Paris, meeting Theodor Plestcheeff there; the couple married in 1929. The Plestcheeffs traveled back and forth between Seattle and Paris for a few years, settling in Seattle after Morgan Carkeek's death in 1931 and moving into the family mansion on Boren Street. In 1934, with the neighborhood no longer as fashionable as it once was, Guendolen decided to sell her parents' home, to be demolished and replaced with a Standard Oil service station. Not one to let such an event pass quietly, Guendolen commemorated the mansion's demise with an exclusive society event held on the premises. Guendolen decorated the house in 1890s style, guided by 1896 Christmas family photograph, and guests dressed in the fashion of the 1890s, the women in bustles and prim necklines, and the men in top hats and fake walrus moustaches. This "Gay Nineties" farewell party, according to local newspapers, was the social event of the season.

In 1937, the Plestcheeffs bought the five-story 1909 stone mansion on East Highland Drive that was built by eccentric Seattle capitalist and "Good Roads" advocate Sam Hill. The house had fallen into disrepair since Hill's death and Guendolen took charge of its renovation: she had the windows enlarged, installed a skylight and redesigned the rooms, decorating them with her own collection of European antiques. The Plestcheeffs also later bought and rejuvenated a waterfront cottage on Bainbridge Island as a summer home, placing the original iron gates from the Carkeek mansion at the entrance to the property.

Following in her mother's footsteps, in 1938 Guendolen became president of the Seattle Historical Society, a position she held for 17 years. She began to raise money for a new home for the Society's historical artifacts, originally collected by her mother Emily, and stored in the Plestcheeff's basement. After years of fundraising and political wranglings, the Seattle Historical Society acquired property off Lake Washington Boulevard, where the Museum of History & Industry opened in 1952.

Though Theodor Plestcheef died in 1967, his influence on Guendolen survived in her wish to share her enthusiasm for the decorative arts, and in tangible form in her extensive collection of Russian decorative ware. In 1987, Guendolen established the Plestcheeff Institute for Decorative Arts, a non-profit center for research and education in the decorative arts, to be housed in the Sam Hill house, which was still her home. Plestcheeff willed the house and its contents to the University of Washington, after plans to donate the building to the Seattle Art Museum fell through. She lived in the mansion until her death in 1994 at the age of 101, and the building continued to serve as the Plestcheeff Institute for Decorative Arts for a few years afterward.

Return to Top

Content Description

Photographs, papers and ephemera related to the life and interests of Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff, and related to the Morgan and Emily Carkeek family. 235 photographs depict Carkeek family members-- Morgan and Emily Carkeek and their children Vivian and Guendolen--individually and in groups; Guendolen Carkeek's husbands Paulo Brenna and Theodor Plestcheeff; Guendolen and Theodor Plestcheeff at home, in Europe, on vacations and at events; and friends, family and acquaintances, many unidentified. Other photographs document the Carkeek Mansion on Seattle's First Hill, including a "Gay Nineties" party thrown by the Plestcheeff's before the building's demolition, and the Plestcheeff's home in Sam Hill's mansion on Capital Hill.

Papers include legal documents regarding the distribution of Emily and Morgan Carkeek's estates to their children, and several pieces of original writing by Vivian Carkeek. Guendolen Plestcheeff's papers document the establishment of the Plestcheeff Institute for the Decorative Arts and her involvement in the Seattle Historical Society and the establishment of the Museum of History & Industry. Clipping files document the cosmopolitan life of Guendolen Plestcheeff, her ongoing interests in fashion and the decorative arts, and her commitment to preserving the history of Seattle through both the Seattle Historical Society and the establishment of a historical museum.

Return to Top

Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

View selections from the collection in digital format here or by clicking on the camera icons in the inventory.

Restrictions on Use

The Museum of History & Industry is the owner of the materials in the Sophie Frye Bass Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from MOHAI before any reproduction use. The museum does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.

Preferred Citation

Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff photographs and other material, Museum of History & Industry, Seattle

Return to Top

Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged into five series:

  • Photographs and drawings
  • Carkeek family papers
  • Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff papers
  • Ephemera
  • Miscellaneous

Location of Collection

3a.2.4-5 (4 boxes)

Location of Collection

1a.3.11 (oversize folder)

Acquisition Information

Gift of the Guendolen Plestcheeff estate; received in 1995.

Processing Note

Processed by Leila Martin and Jody Hendrickson, 2009.

Related Materials

The Collection of Seattle Historical Society Founders' Day and Other Event Photographs, Accession No. 2008.3.1, contains photographs of the Carkeek family, Carkeek Park and Founders Day celebrations at the Carkeek Mansion.

Return to Top

Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Carkeek Park (Seattle, Wash. : 1918-1926)
  • Mansions--Washington (State)--Seattle

Personal Names

  • Brenna, Paulo
  • Carkeek, Emily Gaskill, 1852-1926
  • Carkeek, Morgan J. (Morgan James), 1847-1931
  • Carkeek, Vivian M. (Vivian Morgan), 1879-1934
  • Plestcheeff, Theodor

Corporate Names

  • Seattle Historical Society
  • Museum of History & Industry (Seattle, Wash.)

Geographical Names

  • United States--Washington (State)--Seattle

Form or Genre Terms

  • Ephemera
  • Photographs

Finding aid prepared by Jody Hendrickson
2009

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

About Creative Commons Licenses in Archives West

Loading...
Loading...