Harold A. Parker Studio Collection of Negatives

The Harold A. Parker Studio Collection of Negatives consists of 5157 glass plate negatives, film negatives, and panoramic negatives, 1889-1949, that depict commercial, residential and landscape sites in and around Pasadena and Southern California. The images provide a look at the commercial, residential and social development of Pasadena and surrounding areas during the early years of the twentieth century. The collection is especially rich in images of residential architecture in Pasadena, Altadena, and San Marino; images of Lake Tahoe; depictions of, and activities at, the Raymond, Maryland, and Huntington Hotels in Pasadena; and the commercial, social and cultural landscapes of Pasadena. The collection also provides, through its breadth and depth of subject matter, an example of the career activities of a commercial photographer in Southern California in the early years of the twentieth century.

The collection's 599 glass plate negatives (which are primarily 6-1/2 x 8-1/2 inches), 4429 film negatives (which are primarily 8 x 10 inches but also include 5 x 7 and 4 x 6 inch negatives), and 127 panoramic negatives depict a wide variety of subjects. These include, but are not limited to, aerial views of Pasadena taken on Roy Knabenshue's 1913 dirigible flight over Pasadena, which can be found at the beginning of the collection, and aerial views taken in 1949, which can be found at the end of the film negatives section; Yosemite; many of the California Missions; Lake Tahoe and the Tahoe Tavern; images of Catalina Island; the Raymond, Maryland and Huntington Hotels in Pasadena, including the aftermath of the fire at the Maryland Hotel; Pasadena schools, consisting of construction photographs, interiors, exteriors, school children in and out of classrooms; businesses, primarily window and floor displays, views of interiors and exteriors, employees on the job, and construction photographs of new business buildings (of especial note are the many photographs of markets and grocery stores, and laundries); churches, hospitals, libraries, theaters, and civic buildings, consisting of construction photographs and views of interiors and exteriors (of especial note are the images of hospitals in Pasadena during the 1919 influenza epidemic); residences in Pasadena, Altadena, and San Marino, consisting of street scenes, exteriors, interiors, furniture, architectural details, and architectural renderings by architects such as Wallace Neff, Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury, and Myron Hunt; prefabricated houses and tract homes in the Pasadena area; gardens, both public and private; the Colorado Street bridge; the Rose Bowl; airplanes, including the Vin-Fiz Flyer, the airplane piloted by Calbraith Perry Rodgers that completed the first United States transcontinental flight from Long Island to Pasadena; automobiles, automobile dealerships, and service stations and garages; notable individuals including Albert Einstein, Herbert Hoover, and Ernestine Schumann Heink; and residences, commercial buildings, and landscape views in other locations within Southern California including Alhambra, Antelope Valley, Arcadia, Arvin, Bakersfield, Flintridge, Los Angeles, Monrovia, Palm Springs, Sierra Madre, South Pasadena, Tehachapi, and Whittier. Also present are portraits (many unidentified). Most subjects can be found scattered throughout the collection, and in all formats.

The collection also contains a copy of The Planter, a novel by Herman Whitaker. Parker shot stills for the film version of the novel, starring Tyrone Power, and the book is annotated with clippings and Parker's photographs.

The collection may contain photographs taken by J. Allen Hawkins.