Scope and Contents note

Series I fills boxes 1 through 12 and forms the bulk of the collection. These photographs are all mounted on board, as described above, except for one folder of unmounted photographs of Bergdorf Goodman, and a spiral-bound notebook including a few photographs of a variety of stores. The Bergdorf photos are filed in with those from the albums. The notebook is filed at the end of the series.

Bergdorf Goodman, Bernhard Ulmann, Kaufman's, S. M. Frank & Company, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Woolf Brothers are represented by the largest numbers of photographs. Architectural plans for the Bergdorf Goodman renovations are also included in this series. Color photographs were taken of the Detroit Saks Fifth Avenue and the Kansas City Woolf Brothers jobs; these are noted in the box listing.

While most of the Silver & Co. work was for the garment trade, several other types of businesses are represented here. The offices of the law firm Strasser, Spiegelburg, Fried & Frank (now known as Fried, Frank) and the executive offices of Sterling Drug are represented. C & L Delicatessen, a midtown Manhattan restaurant, is also shown.

In general, these photographs are stark shots meant to show the new interiors and display cases. People appear only in a few images of Bergdorf Goodman (before renovation). Publicity and clippings from Series IV, as well as correspondence from Series III, were used to provide dates from some of these photographs.

The photographs are arranged alphabetically by company or store name, and then by city where necessary. The number of prints follows the name in parentheses.

Scope and Contents note

Series II includes several interior images of four different homes. One is Sol S. Silver's residence on West End Avenue. Another belongs to Saul Brodsky, who was a business, and perhaps social, acquaintance of Silver. These images are all undated.

Photographs are filed alphabetically by inhabitant.

Scope and Contents note

Series III spans the years from 1922 to 1954 and consists largely of letters from satisfied customers, some of which were used as publicity by Silver & Co. The series also includes a 1922 report from Raymond Bell Consulting on the organization of Silver & Co., a 1923 report from Cooley & Marvin Co. about a proposed rearrangement of Silver's manufacturing equipment; and a 1946 Silver Company manual.

Scope and Contents note

Series IV. Publicity Scrapbooks contains two scrapbooks made with black kraft paper and post bindings. Newspaper and magazine clippings are pasted to each page, or are laid in to the scrapbook pages. Scrapbook One spans the years 1931 to 1952 and includes a variety of Silver & Company flyers, advertisements, specifications for potential customers, and newspaper and trade journal clippings. Publications such as Women's Wear Daily,  Display World,  Retail Management,  Lighting & Lamps,  Glass Digest, and  Handbags Illustrated are represented. The majority of the publicity here is for Silver & Co.'s midwestern jobs: Saks Fifth Avenue and the Rollins Company in Detroit, Kaufman's in Colorado Springs, and Woolf Brothers in Wichita and Kansas City. Scrapbook Two spans the time period from 1943 to 1956 and contains many newspaper clippings laid in. Silver & Co. ads that appeared in the  New York Times are pasted onto pages. The majority of jobs represented here are from the 1950s, such as Bergdorf Goodman and the John B. Stetson Company. A 1955 booklet put out by Silver & Co. called "Business Interiors: office, store, showroom" is also pasted in. It contains about twenty pages of illustrations and decorating tips, and was sent to potential clients.