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The Al Parker collection includes three envelopes of photographs, sheet music, and newspaper clippings as well as a scrapbook relating to the professional and personal life of Philadelphia-based photographer and photographic supplies salesman Alfred Parker.

The Al Parker collection includes three envelopes of photographs, sheet music, and newspaper clippings as well as a scrapbook relating to the professional and personal life of Philadelphia-based photographer and photographic supplies salesman Alfred Parker.

Envelope A (photographs): includes unmounted oval portraits of Parker’s children Eda and Ray from the early 1900s; studio portraits of Eda and his wife Alice from the 1910s, two of them from the Philadelphia studio of Gilbert and Bacon; an mounted school class photo (ca. 1890s?)

Envelope B (sheet music): includes three examples of World War I songs from the Eagle Publishing Company of Philadelphia with "music by Geo. L. Robertson and lyrics by Al. Parker."

Envelope C (letters, clippings, etc.): includes a letter appointing Dr. Ray Parker head of plastic surgery at a hospital in Johnstown, PA; a magazine article on “Flood Free Johnstown”; letters and clippings about Dr. Ray Parker; article on World War II factory workers; newspaper article on Theodore Roosevelt urging U.S. entry into World War I; and a note from Christmas 1926 from Parker’s grandson Donald addressed to “Ganco."

Scrapbook: The volume (37 x 28) is cloth-bound and has 66 pages total. Materials are not arranged in any chronological or thematic order and so unrelated items often appear together on the same page.

The album begins with photographs of Parker’s family members while the next few pages focus on scenes from his professional life, including a magazine cover from April 1900 and documentation of his break with Willis & Clements in 1910. Portraits of Parker at every stage of his life appear throughout the scrapbook, though not in any chronological order. The earliest is a tintype from the 1850s that shows him as a young boy with his brothers. Many portraits and casual snapshots of Parker's daughter Eda and son Ray from their early childhood into adulthood are included, while a collection of clippings reflects Parker’s pride in Ray's success as a doctor. His delight in playing the doting grandfather is clear from the drawings Parker made for Eda’s son Donald and in the notes that Donald wrote to Parker using the nickname “Ganco.”

A handful of portraits that were taken by Parker show that he was a capable studio photographer in addition to being a successful promoter of platinum photography products while working for Willis & Clements. Requests for his opinions from Eastman Kodak Company, Photo Era magazine, and the Photographers’ Association of New England testify to his recognized expertise. Numerous portraits of Parker in the company of other well-regarded photographers of the day confirm his acceptance in that professional circle.

Many ephemeral items also help illuminate the arc of Parker's career including programs from his minstrel show days; an advertisement for his Australian window blind company; the initial offer of employment from Willis and Clements; business cards from various stages of his career; and an ad for a new camera shutter he invented. Interspersed amongst these items are letters and photographs from various colleagues and employers along with miscellaneous poems, cartoons, programs, drawings, song lyrics, newspaper clippings, and so on.

The H. Merriman European travel photograph album contains 42 commercially produced views of landmarks in England, France, Germany, and Switzerland as well as six theater tickets, 18 theater programs, 39 tourist attraction or transportation tickets, 26 receipts, and two newspaper clippings.

The H. Merriman European travel photograph album contains 42 views of landmarks in England, France, Germany, and Switzerland as well as six theater tickets, 18 theater programs, 39 tourist attraction or transportation tickets, 26 receipts, and two newspaper clippings.

The album (32 x 24 cm) has marbled paper covers. The majority of photographs in the album consist of commercially produced images of European tourist destinations. In order of appearance the cities represented include London, Brussels, Cologne, Mainz, Frankfort, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Zurich, Lucerne, Interlochen, Berne, St. Gotthard, Chamonix, Geneva, Lausanne, Paris, Amiens, Canterbury, and Liverpool. Also present throughout the album are theater programs and tickets for a range of performances from the Royal Lyceum's King Henry the Eighth to vaudeville at the Empire Theatre of Varieties. Of additional note are tops of hotel bills and tickets from means of transportation such as the London Underground and Berner Tramway.

Martin Pakledinaz was a two time Tony award winning costume designer for stage and film. The collection includes costume, figural, and set design sketches, correspondence, photographs, posters, programs, and publications reflecting his work as a student at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. The collection also includes a small portion of materials from the early stages of his professional career.

The records within this collection highlight Tony award winning costume designer Martin Pakledinaz' academic career as a student within Wayne State University's Department of Theatre and the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance during the early to mid-1970's. The collection subsequently incorporates a small portion of his sketches as a burgeoning costume designer in New York from 1977 to 1978.