Oral history interview with Margaret Biddle Parker

Collection

Identifier: SR 9484

Staff Only

Oral history interview with Margaret Biddle Parker

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Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Margaret Biddle Parker was conducted by Elisabeth W. Potter and Alfred Staehli in Portland, Oregon, on March 15, 1984, as part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library’s oral history program. In addition to the audio recording, a transcript of the interview is available.

In this interview, Parker discusses the career of her husband, Portland architect Jamieson Parker. She discusses how the 1929 stock market crash affected his business, talks about his work for the Historic American Buildings Survey and the Federal Housing Administration in the 1930s, and speaks about some of the buildings he designed. She also talks about her children, their family, and their careers; and about her mother, Margaret Burrell Biddle. She discusses the cause of Jamieson Parker’s death in 1939. She closes the interview by talking about Alfred Parker.

Dates

Creation: 1984 March 15

Creator

Parker, Margaret Biddle, 1898-1987 (Interviewee, Person)
Staehli, Alfred (Interviewer, Person)
Potter, Elisabeth Walton, 1939- (Interviewer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and the estate of Margaret Biddle Parker. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted, https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/

Biographical note

Margaret Biddle Parker, nee Margaret Alden Biddle, was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1898. She spent much of her childhood in Germany, and returned with her family to Portland in 1907. She attended the University of California in Berkeley. In 1923, she and Jamieson Kirkwood Parker were married; they later had three children. She died in 1987.

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (1 audiocassette (1 hr., 15 min., 19 sec.) + transcript (39 pages))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Margaret Biddle Parker conducted by Elisabeth W. Potter and Alfred Staehli on March 15, 1984. Parker discusses the career of her husband, Portland architect Jamieson Parker.

Existence and Location of Copies

Audio and transcript available online in OHS Digital Collections.

Related Materials

Two additional oral history interviews with Margaret Biddle Parker, SR 9413 and SR 9485, are also held by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.