Series 02 - Photographs

The series consists of over 600 hundred black-and-white photographs and negatives that relate to Lt. Col. Parker and his wife’s time in Tibet (1921- 1924), and a collection of more recent colour photographs of Tibetan objects that were collected by the couple. The majority of the b&w photographs were taken by Lt. Col. Parker during his military period, as well as the year following his release. The images depict military scenes, festivals and events, individual and group portraits, as well as various landscapes and architecture. Significant among these photographs are images of: the photographer who accompanied famed British climber, George Mallory; the Dalai Lama’s personal escort; and the first Lhasa Apso dogs out of Tibet. A small number of images (e.g., those of the Dalai Lama in 1910-1911) predate Lt. Col. Parker’s time in Tibet and are believed to have been given to him by some unknown person(s). The original photographs were not labelled; however, valuable contextual information has been provided by Father Donald, whose descriptions and commentary accompany a large number of these images (see Item List).

The prints are located in two photograph albums identified as Photograph Collections A & B. Photograph Collection A contains 243 b&w photographs, all of which are considered to be original prints. Although duplicates of images occur, these simply represent copies developed on different paper. It was reported (by Father Donald) that the last 48 photographs in this album were found loose and spread throughout Lt. Col. Parker’s papers. A total of 189 prints in Photograph Collection A have acetate negatives. Collection B contains 170 b&w photographs, of which all are considered original prints. A total of 67 b&w prints in Photograph Collection B have acetate negatives. Collection B also contains 74 colour photographs of artefacts to which there are no negatives. Duplicates of 68 b&w prints exist between the Photograph Collections A & B.

The series also includes 210 b&w negatives which correspond in number and sequence to print images found in Photograph Collection A: 193 negatives have corresponding prints; 17 negatives have no prints associated with them. A small number of negatives are duplicated. There are no negatives for the colour prints.

Accompanying the series is one compact disc (CD No. 5) consisting of 243 scanned b&w prints and 104 scanned negatives. The scanned prints also correspond in number and sequence to print images found in Photograph Collection A. Ten of the scanned negatives have acetate negatives but no prints associated with them; one scanned negative has neither acetate negative nor print (see Item List).