Maynard L. Parker Negatives, Photographs, and Other Material: Finding Aid
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http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6k4034m6 Online items available Maynard L. Parker negatives, photographs, and other material: Finding Aid Finding aid prepared by Sue Luftschein and Jessica Gambling. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Photo Archives 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2129 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org © May 2009 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Maynard L. Parker negatives, photCL MLP 1 photographs, and other material: Finding Aid Overview of the Collection Title: Maynard L. Parker negatives, photographs, and other material Dates (inclusive): 1930-1974 Bulk dates: 1940s-1960s Collection Number: photCL MLP Creator: Parker, Maynard L., 1900-1976. Extent: 231 boxes (150.01 linear feet) Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photo Archives 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2129 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org Abstract: Maynard L. Parker negatives, photographs, and other material consists of 58,093 black-and-white negatives, color transparencies, black-and-white prints, and color prints; 39 presentation albums; and 17 boxes of office records, 1930-1974. Created primarily by Maynard Parker, the archive documents the residential and non-residential work of architects, interior designers, landscape architects, artists, builders, real estate developers, and clients associated with these fields, foremost among them the magazine House Beautiful . Also included in the collection are photographs taken by other individuals, such as architect Cliff May and Parker's assistant, Charles Yerkes. Language: English. https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll5 Access The collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, please visit the Huntington's website: www.huntington.org. Publication Rights Copyright for the photography of Maynard L. Parker has been assigned to the Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108. All requests for permission to publish photographs in any and all formats must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Photographs. Preferred Citation Maynard L. Parker negatives, photographs, and other material. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Provenance Gift of Ann Carawan, Elizabeth Buxton, and Diane Parker Carawan, 1995; Ann Carawan, 2000. Processing Information Maynard L. Parker negatives, photographs and other material was processed in two stages: 1995-2007 and 2007-2009. From 1995-2007, Huntington Library staff and volunteers rehoused approximately 13,000 negatives. Parker organized his images alphabetically by client or project title in two concurrent files based on date. He also established a file for some, but not all, of his House Beautiful commissions. Thus, there were three distinct alphabetical series of negatives when processing began in earnest in 2007. A National Endowment for the Humanities "We the People" grant enabled the systematic rehousing, organization and description of the archive by a team of two archivists and an archival assistant. All but the immediately identifiable House Beautiful projects were merged into one alphabetical series before being re-divided according to the five series established by the project team in 2007 (see Organization). Archivists created the series arrangement based on both the original order of the collection and a desire to facilitate access. A significant percentage of the collection included documented work by identified (and identifiable) designers, and the project archivists created a series dedicated to architects and designers (Series I). A House Beautiful series was necessitated by Parker's identification and filing of projects created for the magazine (Series II). House Beautiful subseries devoted to architects and designers, residential, and non-residential projects mimics the arrangement of the rest of the collection. The additional two subseries (Locations; Editorial and Staff Assignments) were created to reflect the large number of projects categorized by geographic location or House Beautiful editorial staff. The remainder of the collection fell into two series, residential and non-residential projects (Series III and IV), and were further divided into the subseries of client and project title. The collection also contained what were easily identified as "personal" photographs (Series V) and Parker's business records (Series VI). Maynard L. Parker negatives, photCL MLP 2 photographs, and other material: Finding Aid Parker's labeling system was inconsistent. Negative envelopes or boxes were sometimes labeled with detailed information (homeowner, location, client, date, architect/designer) but more often just with initials or a name. The project team researched the identities, locations, and designers of projects wherever possible. If a designer could be determined, the project was filed in the appropriate Architects and Designers series. All project information is included in the associated database record. Parker tended to house and file color transparencies separately from the corresponding black-and-white negatives. To facilitate access, these relationships have been restored when possible. With the exception of the House Beautiful series, projects are usually filed according to the main entry on Parker's envelopes, either by project title or client. In cases where the main entry provided no significant information about the project, an alternate entry, if present, was used. For example, a number of projects that appear to have been taken for Better Homes and Gardens were filed by Parker under the homeowner's name, but it was decided to file them under Better Homes and Gardens . If the main entry provided no information, archivists supplied a title, which is indicated by the use of square brackets ([]) in the project title. Parker often undertook jobs that involved photographing more than one location, capturing multiple residences, gardens, etc., in one trip. Parker often housed these assignments together in one envelope, and each individual shoot was identified. These multiple projects have been given separate entries in the finding aid and the assocated Filemaker Pro database, but linked together through the use of a single project number. Sue Luftschein organized and described the non-residential, architect and designer, and residential projects, and business records, and wrote much of the front matter of this finding aid; Jessica Gambling organized and described the House Beautiful projects; Alfredo Lafarga rehoused and researched a portion of the architect and designer, residential, and non-residential projects; and Suzanne Oatey contributed to the rehousing of some of Parker's early, non-residential commissions, as well as conducted research on some of Parker's print clients. The scanning of 5000 images in the collection was conducted by Jennifer Sullivan between September 2008 and April 2009. A team of consultants selected items for scanning, applying standards and guidelines in use across the visual resources, archival, and library professions. These include rareness/uniqueness, coverage of subject matter, information on subjects that are poorly documented elsewhere, potential demand, and access to materials that cannot otherwise be easily used. Technical standards were applied to the creation of digital files according to California Digital Library guidelines. The archive includes 11 boxes (7.1 linear feet) of negatives that have deteriorated; 3 of these boxes contain negatives that have deteriorated beyond the point of use. If more than two color transparencies of an image were discovered, the remainder were weeded and destroyed (a total of 1,554 transparencies). Preservation photocopying was performed on original envelopes, telegrams, newspaper clippings, and presentation albums. Physical Characteristics or Technical Requirements Black-and-white negatives, color transparencies, and color negatives have been placed in cold storage for preservation. Arrangements for access to these materials must be made in advance with the Curator of Photographs. Surrogates for many images exist in the form of digital scans and black-and-white prints; many images also exist in published form (see individual project records in the database for bibliographic information). Presentation albums are fragile; please refer to photocopied surrogates. In general, Ektachrome color transparencies have color-shifted to magenta, and Kodachrome color transparencies have remained stable. Biographical Note Maynard L. Parker (1900-1976), known sometimes as "Mike," was born and raised in Vermont. Parker worked in New England at a variety of jobs, including office boy, machinist, and gardener, before turning to photography as a profession. Parker traveled to California three times in the 1920s, finally settling in Los Angeles in 1929. He and his wife, Annie, lived in the Echo Park neighborhood, where Parker built a house on Lemoyne Street designed by a draftsman in architect Richard Neutra's office. The New England saltbox-style house served as residence and studio, as well as the backdrop for many of Parker's published photographs. Parker's personal interests included archery, home renovation, and building furniture. [See photocopies of Maynard and Annie Parker's journals, and interview transcript with Ann Carawan and Diane Parker, February 14,