The series contains literary, artistic, and music works and materials created and aggregated by Mary Olga Park from 1909 to 1982.

Park worked in a variety of literary genres, producing poetry, drama, and non-fiction works. During the 1960s and 1970s, Park wrote and self-published her spiritual writings, consisting of detailed records of her visionary experiences, Biblical studies, philosophical reflections, theology, and studies of the mystics. These include: Between Time and Eternity (Vantage Press, 1960), Man, The Temple of God (self, 1968), The Book of Admonition and Poetry (self, 1969), and An Open Door (self, 1974). Park also loved arts and crafts, and in her spare time she would make booklets, pastel, charcoal drawings and sketches, and bookmarks with religious themes. Some sketches include depictions of individuals she saw in her visions. Often her poetry appears in her sketchbooks, inspiring the art surrounding the text. She also kept materials and books as inspiration for her artistic endeavors.

The series also contains records related to both the educational materials Park created for her position teaching at St. Mary’s Anglican Church Sunday school as well as the teaching materials Park created for her Society of the Mystical Communion of Christ (S.M.C.C.). As a Sunday school teacher, Park had a handmade book to teach students quotes from the Bible called the, “Book of Light.” She also rearranged parables of Jesus as rhythmic readings and recontextualized the parables with aspects of the New Testament. For the SMCC, Park created her own Communion Service, Sanctuary procedures, betrothal and christening procedures, and morning meditation practices which had corresponding handmade booklets.

Before moving to Canada, Park had a promising musical career in England as a soprano, but before it flourished, she moved to Canada. Park became a certified music teacher through the Tonic Sol-Fa College and taught music lessons in Vancouver, sang in the church choir, and her love of music endured. Park admired the works of Georg Friedrich Handel, and not only recorded herself singing excerpts from his oratorios (Jephthah and Messiah) but also re-arranged the composer’s Messiah to better fit her spiritual understanding of the work. Park played the autoharp, and arranged and composed music for the instrument. Music was an integral to Park’s communion service and throughout her life, she composed and recorded hymns for the communion procedure.

Series consists of manuscripts and typescripts of Park’s work, unpublished manuscripts of poetry, prose, and plays; handmade booklets, manuals, procedures and instructions for her “learners,” Sunday school teaching material, prayers, and talks and other study series material; sheet music, transcriptions, arrangements, annotated and inscribed hymnal books, musical certificates, and autoharp transcriptions; bookmarks and booklets, sketchbooks and artworks, and vinyl recordings of Park singing.

The fonds consists of records generated and assembled by Mary Olga Park related to her personal life and associations, materials related to her career as a self-published writer, artist, and spiritual teacher as well as records related to the psychic experiences that she encountered throughout her life. Records span from Park’s early years in England to 1985, and were predominantly created in Vancouver British Columbia. Records from 1986 – 2017 were either added by Susan McCaslin, or Park’s son, Robert Park. The fonds is arranged into three series: Artistic, Literary, and Musical projects, Personal and Administrative Records and Psychic Records.

The Artistic, Literary, and Musical Projects series features drafts of Park’s musical transcriptions and annotated sheet music collection, hymnal book collection, sketches, pastel, and charcoal artwork, and her literary works in various genres, notably drama and poetry. The fonds also includes materials of her published and self-published works, and educational materials related to both her Sunday school position, and her spiritualist teachings. Record types include publications, drafts (typed, handwritten, and hand-annotated), correction notes, poems, manuals, procedures and instructions for her “learners,” Sunday school teaching material, prayers, study series material, sketchbooks and artworks, musical transcriptions, sheet music, and recordings.

The Personal and Administrative Records series contains records related to the personal life and administrative affairs of Park. Park kept detailed subject files on many different religious and spiritual phenomena, spiritualist writers, and completed her own Bible studies. She also corresponded with family, friends, and her “learners.” Record types include Bible study notes and annotations, family history research, education certificates, childhood books, religious and spiritualist publications, newspaper clippings and ephemera, diaries, notes, and personal notebooks, professional and personal correspondence, subject files on spiritualist matters, astrological charts, audio cassettes, photographs, and a postcard collection.

The Psychic Records series aggregates records Park kept throughout her adult life recording various psychic phenomena which she experienced. The records are textual accounts of clairvoyance, clairaudience, “out-of-the-body” experiences, dream visions and soul sight, voices, manifestations, astral encounters, precognition, and healing. Park often referred back to these notes at later dates and annotated their meanings to her as they informed occurrences in her everyday life. These records informed much of her teachings and publications, but were kept separately in her original record-keeping environment.