Wafa Mar'i, the owner of the collection, is the grandson of Abdessalam al-Barqawi, one of the politically and socially active figures. He was known for his support for the Palestinian Revolution in the 1920s and 1930s, and his resistance to land purchases by Zionist organizations. He was assassinated in 1937.

Wafa Mar'i kept a collection of photographs of his grandfather, Abdessalam al-Barqawi, who is considered one of the prominent Palestinian political and social figures, in addition to a set of family photographs of members of the al-Barqawi family during the period between 1900 and 1970.