This finding aid brings together information about the Huntington’s collections of panoramic negatives. These 436 negatives are located in three separate collections: the Verner Collection of Panoramic Negatives, the Harold A. Parker Collection of Photographs and Negatives, and the “Dick” Whittington Studio Collection of Photographs and Negatives. They depict Los Angeles and surrounding areas, and group portraits, 1889-1958. The collection is an important resource for the visual history of Los Angeles, and contains photographs by some of the better known photographers and photographic firms of the first part of the twentieth century.

Harold A. Parker (1878-1930) was born in Iowa and immigrated to Pasadena with his parents in 1892 at the age of 14. He became interested in photography at an early age, and began working professionally in 1900. He opened his Pasadena studio in 1904 and operated it until his death in 1930 at the age of 52. Parker also operated a studio in the Tahoe Tavern at Lake Tahoe between 1908 and 1910, where he produced a number of images of both the Tavern, Lake Tahoe, and the surrounding areas. Parker was noted for his photographs of California, especially his images of the California Missions and the Tournament of Roses parades; he was also responsible for the earliest aerial images of Pasadena. A commercial photographer, Parker worked as a contract photographer for the Pasadena Star-News Tournament of Roses edition, and took pictures of civic and social organizations, local retailers, and private individuals who commissioned him to record their gatherings, buildings, and various rites of passage.

13 boxes, 67.83 linear feet

All requests for permission to publish photographs must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Photographs. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Huntington as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.