The Huntington Library recently launched a new online database that makes accessible the archives of Los Angeles-based architectural and garden photographer Maynard L. Parker (1901-1976). Parker contributed images to many of the nation’s premiere home design publications from the late 1930s through the early 1970s including House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Better Homes & Gardens, and Sunset. He traveled across the country photographing the work of architects Frank Lloyd Wright, E. Fay Jones, Anshen and Allen, and A. Quincy Jones, as well as interiors and furnishings by T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Paul T. Frankl, Paul László, and Samuel Marx. Landscape architecture by noted practitioners Arthur and Marie Berger, as well as the homes of celebrities such as Judy Garland, Alfred Hitchcock, Bob Hope, and Bing Crosby, are also represented in the collection.
Some 6,000 images from the Maynard Parker collection—organized by project and searchable by keyword—are currently available through the Huntington Library’s website with a finding aid and a selection of related resources. The entire archive, which consists of approximately 58,000 negatives, transparencies, and photographs as well as office records and business correspondence related to a wide range of American architects, publishers, and designers of the post-WWII era, is in the process of being digitized.
The database is a wonderful visual resource of mid-century American design and architecture. Take a look!