The core of the collection was primarily created by Donald Barker (1933-2016), a photographer for the Observer-News Enterprise and historian from Conover, NC. As a photographer, Donald received several national awards for his work in capturing landmarks in and around New York City. In addition to his photography and photo collection, Donald wrote about the history of his hometown of Conover in "Images of America Series: Conover" and "Big time for a Dime: A History of Silver Screen in the Catawba Valley." In his early life, Donald was a member of the US Air Force and after leaving the military he transferred his love of aircraft into a position as an Operations Agent for several airlines, among them the Piedmont Airlines Company out of Hickory, NC. After his passing Donald left his photography collection to another historian Derick Hartshorn.
Derick Hartshorn III was born in Massachusetts and later moved to Conover, NC where he married and spent the rest of his life. Derick was a member of the US Navy and later a marketing executive for General Electric. As a historian, Derick was interested in genealogy and in 1997 his book "The Hartshorn Families in America" was published. When Derick passed in 2020 he gifted the continuation of Donald Barker's photograph collection to the Rhodes Room Genealogical and Local History section of the Catawba County Library System in Newton, NC.
Some of the photographs contained within the digital collection contain recorded information on the person, time period, or area of interest, but most do not. The Barker-Hartshorn collection is varied in scope and contains some photographs that Donald Barker and Derick Hartshorn created or had given to them in their work as historians and authors.