Cushman's notebook annotations and corresponding documentation on slide mounts have been exactly transcribed, even when abbreviations or misspellings are included. These descriptions are keyword searchable. Dates associated with the slides are also searchable. In addition, descriptive metadata for the subject content, geographic location, genre and physical characteristics of each image provides enhanced access to the collection. Terms have been selected from the following controlled vocabularies:

Library of Congress Thesauri for Graphic Materials
The Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms (TGM I) and Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms (TGM II) include topic headings developed by the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division over the past fifty years to catalog graphic materials. The thesauri adhere to ANSI/NISO Z39.19-1994, the American National Standards Institute/National Information Standards Organization Guidelines for the Construction, Format and Management of Monolingual Thesauri. Terms are expressed in natural language word order following American English spelling conventions. First published in 1987, both thesauri are now available online.

Subject Terms (TGM I)
TGM I comprises more than 6,300 terms and approximately 5,000 cross-references. The thesaurus includes terms for objects, activities, occupations, events and concepts represented in visual resources. TGM I is updated regularly, with several hundred new terms added annually. Catalogers have selected applicable terms from TGM I to describe prominent subjects and activities represented in each image. As appropriate, terms for concepts (e.g., poverty, happiness, anger) are also documented.

Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms (TGM II)
TGM II, the companion thesaurus to TGM I, comprises more than 600 terms and more than 450 cross-references for documenting categories of visual resources as well as the processes, techniques, and materials used to produce them. The thesaurus includes more than twenty genre terms applicable to photographs in the collection. In addition, since Cushman photographed many works of art, the term "Reproductions" is also used as well as more specific headings for types of works of art such as "Portrait paintings" or "Landscape paintings."

Library of Congress Authorities Files (LCAF)
LCAF are established headings for cataloging subjects, personal names, corporate names, titles of works of art, and geographical names. The LCAF are updated daily. When an appropriate subject term is not provided in TGM I, catalogers have selected subject headings from the Library of Congress Subject Authority Headings. Existing LCAF headings or newly-created headings in Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) format following conventions established by the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2) have been assigned to the images as appropriate. These include names of national parks, bodies of water, geographic places, and physical landmarks. The LCAF Name Authority Headings have been consulted to document personal and corporate names.

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN)
TGN is one of three structured vocabularies developed by the Getty Research Institute to provide access to information about art, architecture, and material culture. The TGN comprises more than a million names and information about places, presented in a cross-referenced hierarchy of the world including continents and countries, states and provinces, regions and counties, cities and towns, neighborhoods and physical features such as rivers, mountains and forests. It also provides information about types of places and geographic coordinates corresponding to named places. TGN has been used to document geographic names and locations not included in LCAF, most notably names of neighborhoods and other smaller subdivisions of inhabited places.