The fonds consists primarily of material accumulated and/or created by Lt. Col. Parker during the period of his military duties in Tibet and time spent there after his release from the military (1921-1924). This material includes textual records such as correspondence relating to military matters with Sir Charles Bell, and those written to, and received from, Tibetan officers and the 13th Dalai Lama. A few letters written in Tibetan have been recently translated into English and are included in the fonds. Other textual materials includes handwritten speech and other notes, published documents such as an Almanac (written in Tibetan), newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous items such as philatelic materials and handwritten children's rhymes and songs.
The fonds also contains a collection of black and white photographs and negatives, the majority of which were images taken by Lt. Col. Parker, while others, predate Parker’s time in Tibet. The photographs are housed in two albums (Photograph Collections A and B), and show Tibet primarily in the 1920s. The images depict military and domestic scenes in Tibet including photographs of individuals from all social strata, as well as local architecture and landscapes. Some of the places (e.g., monasteries) no longer exist. The albums also contain more recent colour prints of the many Tibetan objects acquired by the Parkers (and now housed in the Ethnology Collection at the Museum of Anthropology). Some duplicates occur within and between albums. The negatives correspond to prints in one album (Photograph Collection A). Only a small number of negatives have not been printed.
The fonds is arranged in the following 3 series:
- Correspondence
- Photographs
- Miscellaneous Materials
