Mary Dudley Parsons was responsible for developing the Shiloh Museum's photograph collection, and in 1993 the Museum Board of Trustees reconginzed Mary's accomplishments by naming the collection after her. In the same year, the photo collection won a prestigious national award of merit from the American Association for State and Local History.
Mary grew up in the Sacramento Valley of California at Berkeley and held several positions as a teacher and librarian in California and Latin America. She retired to Arkansas in 1976 with her husband, Jim. Mary began doing volunteer work at the museum in 1977 and later became a full-time employee, designing exhibits, supervising the Shiloh Store, and developing the Museum's library and photographic archives. She retired in 1994, and passed away in 2005.