ART Inv. numbers

ART Inv. (i.e. "inventory") numbers are temporary call numbers that act as pseudo-accession numbers for uncataloged material that cannot be given a six-digit accession number while awaiting cataloging.

ART Inv. numbers 1 through 453 were assigned to uncataloged "art" items in the early 1950s (including published texts primarily of art interest). Most of these have since been given ART File, Box or Vol. call numbers. Approximately 55 still have their ART Inv. call numbers.

In October 2002, ART Inv. numbering resumed at ART Inv. 1001 in order to assign unique identifiers to the approximately 300 non-book and non-manuscript items that had no call number or accession number, but had long been part of the collection (often from Mr. and Mrs. Folger's time).

In 2019, the number of ART Inv. items grew rapidly because of the need to assign a unique identifier to items going into storage during the renovation.