Solomon Joseph Selvin was born on 31 January 1878 in Kuznitza, Lithuania. He attended four years of rabbinical school and then was drafted into the Czarist army where he served four years as clerk. He married Fannia Frank in 1904 and then moved to Murray, Utah, in 1908. He entered the clothing store business and earned enough to bring his family to Utah. He maintained his clothing store business until 1954. Throughout his life, Selvin served in various political and community capacities. He served in the Utah State Legislature and State Senate, was mayor of Tooele, was on the Tooele County Welfare Board, and was involved in many other civic concerns. Sol Selvin died on 18 August 1958.
The Sol J. Selvin papers (1937-1982) consist of certificates, biographies, legislative documents, correspondence, and news clippings concerning Solomon "Sol" Joseph Selvin (1878-1958), a former Utah Senator and businessman.
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Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Gift of Minnie Selvin Crutcher from 1978-1982.
Processed by Drew Staffanson in 1987.
Photographs were transferred to the Multimedia Division of Special Collections (P0465).
Sol J. Selvin's autobiography, Selvin biography written by James W. Massey, and naturalization certificate of the Selvin family.
List of 1952 State Senate campaign donations, and 1944 and 1956 election certificates.
Senate journal with Selvin's civil rights bill, notes on Selvin's housing bill, and Selvin's speech for the Student Fellowship at the University of Utah.
Governor J. Bracken Lee's address to the Thirtieth Utah Legislature, Directory and Rules of the Thirty Second Utah Legislature, and ticket and program to the Utah Thirty-Second Legislature Dinner and Dance.
Included is correspondence between Sol J. Selvin and Frank Jonas, professor of political science at the University of Utah, concerning the influence Mormon Church influence in Utah politics, particularly the election process.
Album of birthday letters presented to Sol J. Selvin on his seventy- seventh birthday by the Utah State Senate.
Includes news on Selvin's birthdays.
Program and newspaper clippings of the presentation of the Tooele Distinguished Civic Service Award.
Awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, U.S. Office of Price Administration, Kiwanis International, Boy Scouts of America, and International Association of Lions Clubs.
Newspaper clipping, correspondence, and copy of foundation's motives.
Collection of personal notes from Sol J. Selvin's political colleagues, newspaper clippings, and obituary of Herman Selvin.