Photographs gathered by Selvin for works he authored on the history of the labor movement, including A Terrible Anger: The 1934 Waterfront and General Strikes in San Francisco (1966), Sky Full of Storm: A Brief History of California Labor (1966), The Other San Francisco (1969), A Place in the Sun (1981), as well as several books that featured labor pioneers such as Samuel Gompers, Eugene Debs, John L. Lewis, Terence V. Powderly, George Meany, and others.

Also includes correspondence between Selvin and other organizations related to requests for photographic images.