Gateway: Collections relating to Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman, the KSU Museum and the School of Fashion Design and Merchandising

Prepared by Edith Serkownek, June 2006; Updated by Edith Serkownek, March 2016

Historical Note

In 1981 businessmen and partners, Jerry Silverman (1910-1984) and Shannon Rodgers (1911-1996), announced the donation of their privately-owned $5 million collection of costumes and decorative arts to Kent State University. As part of the agreement, the University committed to the creation of a museum to house and provide educational access to the collection and to the creation of a school of fashion design and merchandising intended to serve as a center for fashion education in the Midwest.

Strenuous fundraising efforts for the Silverman-Rodgers Project began and spectacular fashion shows in the early 1980s kept the project in the public consciousness. School officials made the decision to renovate the historic building, Rockwell Hall, in order to house the museum and the new Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design and Merchandising (School of Fashion). Despite the death of Jerry Silverman and the museum's first director, Stella Blum, the KSU Museum opened with great fanfair in September, 1985. The second half of Rockwell Hall was then renovated and the School of Fashion was officially dedicated in April, 1990. Rodgers continued to work at the KSU Museum and when he died in 1996 his personal papers came to KSU.

Since its opening in 1985, the KSU Museum has maintained a regularly changing exhibit schedule and many of its exhibits are documented in these collections. The museum also continues to serve as a laboratory for the students in the School of Fashion. The School of Fashion provides students with 4-year degrees in fashion design and fashion merchandising. The School's Senior Portfolio provides design students with the opportunity to present their work in a popular annual fashion show.

Scope and Content

A number of collections relating to the lives of Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman, their gift to KSU and to the creation and ongoing operations of the KSU Museum and the School of Fashion have been given to or created by Special Collections and Archives. These collections are housed in both the KSU Special Collections and Archives (Main Library, Room 1212) and in the June F. Mohler Fashion Library (131 Rockwell Hall). New material is added to many of these collections on a continual basis. Please check back for updates and additions to our finding aids.

Collections

Bea McPherson, KSU Museum and Fashion School papers, 1978-1988
This collection contains the papers of Bea S. McPherson, a KSU Alum, and includes documents relating to the early events associated with fundraising for, and development of, the KSU Museum and the School of Fashion.

Kent State University Museum records, 1962-2016
This collection consists of materials relating to the KSU Museum and includes business and event files, exhibits files, museum publications, photographs, periodical clippings and audio-video materials. Additions will continue to be made to the collection.

KSU Museum and School of Fashion, Miscellaneous Administrative records, 1977-1990
This collection contains the administrative records of the KSU presidential offices of Brage Golding and Michael Schwartz and relates directly to the development of the KSU Museum and the School of Fashion. It includes correspondence, memoranda, subject files, newspaper clippings and blueprints of Rockwell Hall.

Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman papers, 1825-1994 [Bulk 1959-1994]
This collection iconsists of the personal papers of Jerry Silverman (1910-1984) and Shannon Rodgers (1911-1996). This large collection includes Rodgers' family genealogical materials, Rodgers' fashion sketches, photographs, correspondence, financial documents, newspaper clippings, awards and ephemera related to Jerry Silverman and Shannon Rodgers personal and professional lives including their long partnership in Jerry Silverman, Inc., the very successful New York women's ready-to-wear firm, their donation to KSU and the early operations of the KSU Museum.

School of Fashion Design and Merchandising records, 1981-2015 
This collection contains the records of Shannon Rodgers and Jerry Silverman School of Fashion Design and Merchandising (The Fashion School) at Kent State University. This collection includes subject files, event photographs, student scholarship photographs, Portfolio and Hall of Fame photographs, invitations and programs, newspaper clippings and audio-video materials.

Stanley Garfinkel papers, 1940-1997
This collection contains the papers of Kent State University professor Stanley Garfinkel and includes oral interviews and research Garfinkel undertook for the documentary, Shannon Rodgers for Jerry Silverman: Style & Quality on 7th Avenue.  It also includes interviews Garfinkel conducted documenting the Rodgers and Silverman donation to Kent State University.

Tarter/Miller papers, 1933-1996 [Bulk 1968-1996]
This collection contains the papers of Jabe Tarter and Paul Miller, who donated their large collection of antique glass and collectibles to the Kent State University Museum in 1983. The collection includes photographs at the time of their donation to KSU, personal papers and Akron Beacon Journal photographs taken for Tarter's newspaper columns on antique identification.