Efforts are underway to find a home for a collection of items belonging to Rosa Parks -- the woman known as the "mother of the civil rights movement."

Auction house Guernsey's says it has amassed thousands of items belonging to the activist, ranging from photographs to awards and hand-written notes describing the turbulent fall of segregation and rise of civil rights.

When Parks passed away in 2005, the items from her Detroit home were put in storage, where they remain to this day.

Guernsey's says it's important for a new generation to know of her work.

"Right now what we're looking for is to put the entire collection with an institution so that everybody, both now and in the future, will have access to her things and be able to look at them like we do and be close to the items," said Guernsey's Senior Archivist Carolyn Salter.

The archive is considered to be one of the most substantial bodies of material ever to be made available.

"It's a microcosm of her life and it's like everything is in there," said Salter. "You see her as a complete woman and not just a heroic figure -- which she is, and that's part of it -- but it is also, you know, the [campaign] buttons that she's collected over time."

Park's childhood books were discovered alongside messages from children that she received in old age.

"Posters and cards, they sent into her saying 'Thank you.' I think at one point she fell and there as a lot of cards from children saying 'We wish you well,'" said Salter.

A wealth of pictures cover Park's complete life -- snapshots with family, friends, presidents and pioneers, like a candid shot with Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress.

"It's such a joy to find this [photo] because it's really a spontaneous picture of the two of them and they are both pioneers in their way in civil rights," said Salter.

The auction house hopes to give the collection to an education institution, instead of selling it to private collectors.

"It's not likely to end up in someone's home just because they may have deep pockets," said Arlan Ettinger, the president of Guernsey's. "The hope is that it will go to an institution, be it a museum or a university with proper facilities or some other kind of setting where the public can learn from this."

Officials say any proceeds from the items' placement will be divided between the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development and the Parks family.