Thomas Parke was a Birmingham physician and health officer who served as an early member of the Birmingham Public Library Board.

Thomas Parke was a Birmingham physician and health officer. His papers include photographs and reports documenting the treatment of prisoners in the convict lease system.

This collection includes correspondence of Sarah E. Parsons and her husband W. A. Parsons, who served in the Civil War in the 12th Alabama Infantry Regiment and was killed in October 1864 at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia. Six letters written to Sarah from her husband appear to date from 1864. The collection also contains letters written by John M. Huey.

Luther Patrick represented the Birmingham area as a member of Congress from 1937 to 1943 and from 1945 to 1947. He attended Louisiana State University, Purdue University, and in 1918 received a law degree from the University of Alabama. Patrick was a radio commentator, musician, poet and author of three books, Hope You’re Livin’ an’ Doin’ Well (1931) Friends, Nabors, Kinfolks (1947) and Goosepocket (1955). He served a City Attorney for the City of Fairfield and Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama. Luther Patrick died May 26, 1957. The collection contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, voting records, magazine publications, a scrapbook, photographs, and other material.

Kate Mayhew Speake Penney was born on a plantation in Lawrence County, Alabama, in 1864. Penney spent her childhood in Huntsville, Alabama, and was educated at the Huntsville Female Seminary. She married James Edwin Penney in 1893 and the couple moved to Birmingham. In the course of her literary career, Penney published several novels, short stories, and poems. Her books include a temperance reform novel entitled A Common Lot (1898, republished in Canada in 1905 as A Woman's Problem); Land Poor, and Six Shorter Stories concerning Southern agricultural conditions (1928); Us dealing with the Spanish American War and the yellow fever epidemic (1934); Cross Currents, a novel about the Civil War (1938); and My Daughter (1946). Penney served as national vice-president of the League of American Pen Women and was one of the organizers of the Birmingham Chapter of League of American Pen Women. She was also an active member of the Birmingham Writers Club, the Quest Club, and the Alabama Writers Conclave. Penney died in Birmingham in August 1947. The bulk of this collection consists of letters, both incoming and outgoing, which document the lives of Penney family members. Among these letters, the largest percentage is either from or to Kate Speake Penney. The papers of this Birmingham family also include biographical information on Kate Penney and newspaper clippings and press releases concerning Penney's books A Common Lot and Land Poor.

Betty White Johnson was a Birmingham writer and artist. Her novel I Lived This Story was produced as the 1931 motion picture Confessions of a Coed. This collection contains letters written to White by humorist and writer S. J. Perelman.

This collection contains letters written to Ruth Perkins, a young woman residing in the Birmingham, Alabama area in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Perkins, whose full name was Mildred Ruth, was born about 1922 and was the daughter of Oscar R. and Luine O. Perkins. The letters are typical of those written between family and friends of the time with discussions of school, holidays, friends and relatives. Five letters are from three servicemen, all from camps in the United States. All three young men seem to have been romantically involved with Ruth Perkins. The collection also contains World War II era military documents of Herbert W. Parker, a Birmingham area resident. At the time of this writing, the relationship between Perkins and Parker is unknown.

Phillips High School, named for Birmingham superintendent of education John Herbert Phillips, opened in 1923. Located on Seventh Avenue, North between Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth streets, the school was reserved for whites during the period when Birmingham's schools were racially segregated. This scrapbook, compiled by parents and students of Phillips High School, contains newspaper clippings, correspondence, programs and other material relating to the activities of the PTA, students, teachers, and school activities. The scrapbook also contains original artwork by John M. Tweddle, a student.

Phillips served as Birmingham’s first Superintendent of Education.

These oversize photographs show most of Jefferson County.

The general photograph collection is an artificial collection created by the Archives Department to house photographs acquired individually rather than as part of a larger body of material. New images are added to the collection as they become available. This collection contains photographic prints and negatives. The images relate primarily to the Birmingham area and to a lesser extent Alabama, and include streetscapes, buildings, and events. The images date from the 1870s to the 1990s with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1890s to the 1950s.

The portrait photograph collection is an artificial collection created by the Archives Department to house photographs acquired individually rather than as part of a larger body of material. New images are added to the collection as they become available. This collection contains photographic prints and negatives. The images, studio portraits and candid photographs of individuals and groups of people, relate primarily to the Birmingham area and to a lesser extent Alabama.