The Adele Balkan costume design drawings span the years 1939-1965 and encompass 9.4 linear feet and 262 folders of drawings.

The graphic arts files contain costume design drawings for more than thirty films, including "Belle of the Nineties" (1934), "Beau Geste" (1939), "Notorious" (1946), "South Pacific" (1958), "The Egyptian" (1954), "The Blue Angel" (1959), "The Story of Ruth" (1960), and "Tender is the Night" (1962). The drawings represent work by costume designers Travis Banton, Marjorie Best, Edith Head, Dorothy Jeakins, Charles LeMaire, Jean Louis, Nino Novarese, Orry-Kelly, Renie and others. The files also include works associated with unidentified films, unproduced films, television and stage productions, and costume design drawings created while Balkan was a student at Cooper Union in New York City.

Adele Balkan was born in Berkeley, California in 1907. Her father was a travelling salesman and her family moved often throughout her childhood, living for extended periods in Boston and New York before returning to California during Balkan’s senior year of high school. Anywhere her family resided, her mother took her to the theater and the cinema, and Balkan loved both from an early age. She also sketched constantly, and her mother encouraged her to attend art schools. Following her graduation from Berkeley High School in 1925, Balkan and her family returned to New York where she enrolled at the Cooper Union and majored in art. After completing her degree in 1933, her plan was to work as a sketch artist for dress manufacturers, but when her family had to move to Los Angeles, she decided to utilize her skills in the film industry. She applied at Paramount Pictures and was hired for CLEOPATRA (1934), ultimately staying on as a sketch artist for the studio until 1940, first for Travis Banton, then Edith Head. She then briefly worked as a sketch artist for fashion and costume designer Irene at Irene’s salon at Bullocks Wilshire. By 1941 Balkan was working in film again, this time at RKO studios, not just as a sketch artist to designers like Michael Woulfe and Edward Stevenson, but as an associate designer as well. Her design work can be seen in such RKO films as THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (1948), THEY LIVE BY NIGHT (1949), and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949).

Balkan went to Twentieth Century-Fox in 1949 and worked closely with head designer Charles LeMaire as both his assistant and sketch artist. In her work for LeMaire she gained experience on such productions as THE ROBE (1953), HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE (1953), THE EGYPTIAN (1954), THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT (1956), and TENDER IS THE NIGHT (1962). She also continued to design on her own, and her diverse credits for the studio include SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD (1955), THE YOUNG LIONS (1958), and THE FLY (1958). She was also one of many associate designers hired for THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956), and even worked on location in Egypt for the Paramount production. LeMaire left Fox in 1959, and Balkan only remained with the studio for another year before leaving for Universal-International Pictures. Initially, she worked as a buyer for Universal’s wardrobe department, then reunited with Irene, sketching her designs for some of Doris Day’s films with the studio. She then returned to Fox and designed the costumes for the pilot episode of the studio’s television series MARGIE and for the film JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOME (1965). For the last several years of her career, she worked in wardrobe for films like STAR! (1968) and for the television series THE NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR. Balkan retired in 1972 but continued to sketch and paint until her death in 1999.