The Barckhan photographs document family life, their places of business, and their recreational interests in raising and driving miniature horses and in boating. The Park photographs primarily document family life. Other prominent topics include the Capitol Square, carnivals, parades, Madison street scenes (primarily on the east side), boating, schools, firehouses, and the University of Wisconsin campus.
The Barckhans presented lantern slide shows featuring their photographs to their family and friends; the collection includes hand-tinted targets used for these shows, as well as several commercially produced slide sets on Southern and racial themes. Also part of the collection are several home movies of Madison and vacation scenes taken by Maurice S. Park during the 1940s and 1950s.
Why Park had custody of the Barckhan photographs is unexplained, although they are known to have been neighbors. Generally, the Park negatives are 5 x 7-inch, the Barckhan images are 4 x 5-inch lantern slides without original negatives, and the Van Deusen photographs are X3 copy negatives made shortly after donation of the originals to the Society. The latter were discarded after copying because of deterioration.
