He was also an editor and an author, writing primarily on the history of the Iroquois. A Seneca, on his father Frederick's side, he was the grandson of Nicholson Henry Parker, the brother of Ely Samuel Parker, U. S. Grant's military Secretary. Nicholson and Ely Parker were sons of William Parker who took the name of an English officer, and descendants of Handsome Lake, the Seneca prophet. The Arthur C. Parker Papers are primarily material collected as research for his books on the Iroquois indians and his typescript manuscripts for his series, The Amazing Iroquois . There is some correspondence to and from Arthur C. Parker, the rest is related to his writing, including the collection of correspondence and writings of his great uncle Ely S. Parker and Parker's friend and collaborator Lewis Henry Morgan.
Memorabilia includes convention ribbons and campaign badges.
There are photographs of Arthur C. Parker and Ely S. Parker. Programs indicate the speaking engagements of Arthur Parker. Research makes up the bulk of the single-item materials and includes documents, maps, notes, photographs, and writings by Arthur Parker, Ely S. Parker, Harriet Maxwell Converse, William Beauchamp and others on the Iroquois and on Mary Jemison, a white captive adopted by the Senecas. This series includes an 1839 census of the Buffalo Creek Reservation. Photographs include Sitting Bull, Chauncy Abrams, and Solomon O'Bail.