Arrangement
The collection is arranged by Project Title according to Korab's filing system. Within each folder materials are organized sequentially by media type: photographs and prints, contact sheets, manuscript material, color transparencies, black & white negatives, color slides, and other visual materials. Not all negatives have corresponding prints, but most prints have corresponding negatives or transparencies. Korab's collection also contained binder portfolios which were disbound for collection safety. These materials are preserved in original order from the binder and are marked accordingly.
The original folder order often goes through themes, grouping materials alphabetically by architect's name, Project Title, thematically by content, dates, or rejected/duplicated materials. A portion of the finding aid is organized roughly by State rather than Projects, with folders representing 39 U.S. states. Additionally, a range of folders organized by general topics (starting at KORAB F1900), includes categories that span locations, such as "Barns."
This means that one project may have content in many different folders or areas of the collection, making keyword searching within the finding aid pivotal to getting a comprehensive view of relevant materials in the collection.
- Balthazar Korab Collection
- Eero Saarinen Book Project, 2005-2008
- Korab Oversize Storage
- Optical Disc Storage
Artist Choice File
In some cases, the Korab Office removed materials from folders before transferring the collection to the Library of Congress. The removal is generally indicated by a blue or green Artist Choice removal sheet left in the folder. To the best of our knowledge, the Artist Choice selections have been relocated to folders KORAB F3911 to KORAB F4166 and KORAB F9664 to KORAB F9781.
Markings Found on Original Materials
White slips with the phrase "Intentionally left blank" were placed by Library staff to help note that items are not missing from negative and slide sheets.
Yellow and yellow-green round stickers were used by the Korab Office staff and are often placed on empty sleeves as call slips for negatives removed by employees. Oftentimes the sticker has the initials of the person or organization that borrowed the negatives. Ex: CMK is Christian M. Korab, LOC is the Library of Congress.
Some negatives were numbered by the Korab Office, and you can occasionally use this to identify prints and variations from a negative. These have not been correlated, not all negatives have prints, although most prints have corresponding negatives.