Dorothy C. Miller papers, circa 1912-1992, bulk 1959-1984

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A Finding Aid to the Dorothy C. Miller Papers, circa 1912-1992, bulk 1959-1984, in the Archives of American Art, by Stephanie Ashley and Barbara Aikens

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Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art

Table of Contents:

• Biographical Information
• Overview of the Collection
• How to Use the Collection
• Detailed Description and Container Inventory

Biographical Information

Dorothy Canning Miller (1904-2003) worked in New York City as a highly influential curator of contemporary art and was the first curator of the Museum of Modern Art. Later, she worked as as an art advisor and consultant to Nelson A. Rockefeller, the Rockefeller family, Rockefeller University, Chase Manhattan Bank, and the Port Authority of and New Jersey. Dorothy Miller was also married to Holger Cahill, director of the WPA Federal Art Project.

Dorothy C. Miller was born in Hopedale, Massachusetts in 1904 and received her Bachelor of Arts from Smith College in 1925. She was first introduced to modern art through classes at the Newark Museum taught by John Cotton Dana and Holger Cahill. Miller joined the curatorial staff of the Newark Museum in 1926. The museum was one of the first to organize exhibitions of American folk art, American Primitives (1930-1931) and American Folk Sculpture (1931-1932). Miller worked with Cahill and others on the exhibition and developed a life-long interest in folk art.

After four years at the Newark Museum, Miller moved to New York city, hoping to get involved with the newly opened Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), and, likely, to be with Holger Cahill, with whom she lived with on 8th Street prior to their marriage in 1938. Between 1930 and 1932 she took odd jobs and worked with Mrs. Henry Lang cataloging, researching and installing Lang's collection of Native American art Lang donated to the Montclair Art Museum. At the same time, Holger Cahill was serving as Acting Director of the Museum of Modern Art during an absence of Director Alfred H. Barr. In 1932, Cahill asked Miller to assist him with curating the American Painting and Sculpture, 1862-1932 exhibition at MOMA, and together they also curated the First Municipal Art Exhibition, 1934 at the Rockefeller Center.

In 1934, Barr hired Miller as his assistant and one year later appointed her as MOMA's first curator. Miller spent the next 35 years organizing many of this country's most important exhibitions of contemporary art and building personal relationships with new artists and photographers, as well as the collections of MOMA. Some of her more important shows included New Horizons in American Art, 1936; Calder: 19 Gifts from the Artists, 1967; and Twentieth Century Art from the Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller Collection, 1969. As a curator, Miller enjoyed close friendships with contemporary artists of all ages, such as AlCopley, Alexander Calder, Chryssa, Arshile Gorky, Will Horwitt, Loren MacIver, and Louise Nevelson, among many others. Miller retired from MOMA in 1969 but continued to have an influential career as art consultant and advisor.

Dorothy Miller assisted and advised Nelson A. Rockefeller in building his vast personal collection of modern art, much of which ended up in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Just prior to her retirement, Miller organized a large exhibition of Rockefeller's collection. The exhibition catalog written by Miller was the basis for the book she worked on following Rockefeller's death in 1979, ultimately published as The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection: Masterpieces of Modern Art. In the preface, Rockefeller credited Miller with being one of the four people to whom he was indebted "for the understanding and endless joy I have found in the collecting of modern art in all forms."

Miller also served as the primary art consultant for projects to furnish federal spaces, including Henry Kissinger's State Department office suite, and the official Vice-Presidential residence at the Admiral's House in Washington D.C.

In 1959 Miller was invited to join the art collection committee of the Chase Manhattan Bank and served on the committee until the mid-1980s, contributing her expertise to the development of one of this country's oldest and largest corporate collections of modern and contemporary art. She was also hired as an art advisor to First National City Bank, now Citibank.

Miller was also an advisor to other members of the Rockefeller family, including David Rockefeller, and assisted with developing the art collections of Rockefeller Institute/University. From 1960 through the late 1980s Miller was a member of the art committee for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANJY) and was responsible for selecting much of the artwork for the World Trade Center in the 1970s. She served on numerous boards, committees, and commissions, including the Hancock Shaker Village, the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Empire State Plaza in Albany, and the Smith College Museum of Art. She also became a member of the Mark Rothko Foundation Board of Directors after the litigation following Rothko's death between Rothko's executors and his daughter.

In the mid-1970s Miller assisted the Whitney Museum of American with planning an exhibition and supporting catalog of the work of folk artist Edward Hicks. Although the exhibition and catalog were only partially realized in 1980, Miller and Eleanore Price Mather compiled and published a book on Hicks, Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdoms and Other Paintings, published in 1983.

In 1982-1983 Miller received the Art Dealers Association Special Award, an honorary degree from Williams College, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture governor's award. In 1984 she was named honorary trustee of the Museum of Modern Art. In 1985 the Smith College Museum of Art honored her important contributions to museum connoisseurship with the exhibition Dorothy C. Miller: With An Eye to American Art.

Dorothy Miller died in 2003 at the age of 99 at her home in Greenwich Village in New York City.

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Overview of the Collection

Scope and Contents

The papers of contemporary art curator, historian, and consultant Dorothy C. Miller measure 24.7 linear feet and date from circa 1912-1992, with the bulk of the material dating from 1959 to 1984. The papers primarily concern Miller's career after retiring from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Found are scattered biographical materials, extensive correspondence and subject files, and project files for her art advisory and committee work for the Rockefeller family, Rockefeller University, Chase Manhattan Bank, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the World Trade Center, and other miscellaneous corporate and private clients. Files documenting Miller's published catalog Masterpieces of Modern Art, The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection are also found. Miller's work as a trustee and committee member of various public and private boards and commissions is also represented here. Additionally, the papers contain Miller's research files on Edward Hicks and folk art, and a small number of files of her husband Holger Cahill about his work as Director of the Federal Art Project. There is a scattered documentation of Miller's early curatorial work with Holger Cahill on the First Municipal Art Exhibition (1934) held at the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center. Also found are Dorothy Miller's collection of artists' Christmas cards and photographs of Miller and others.

Scattered biographical material mostly concerns Miller's education at Smith College and awards and honorary degrees that she received. Extensive correspondence and subject files document her professional and personal relationships with family, friends, colleagues, museums, art dealers and artists, as well as her research interests. Individual files may contain a mix of correspondence with, as well as about, the person or subject, compiled research documents, printed materials, and scattered photographs. Files are found for Lewin Alcopley, Alfred Barr, Betty Parsons Gallery, Cahill family members, Lee Bontecou, James Byars, Holger Cahill, Alexander Calder, Christo, Chryssa, Calvert Coggeshall, John Canaday, Maryette Charlton, Stuart Davis, Jay DeFeo, Lorser Feitelson, Arshile Gorky, Peggy Guggenheim, Grace Hartigan, Will Horwitt, Jasper Johns, Julien Levy, Pierre Matisse, Louise Nevelson, Barnett Newman, Isamu Nauchi, Georgia O'Keefe, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, Kay Sage, Charles Sheeler, Hedda Sterne, travel, Clyfford Still, William Scharf, among many others.

Detailed records of Miller's art advisory work for the Rockefeller family include correspondence with Nelson A. Rockefeller and David Rockefeller about building their personal collections of contemporary and folk art, meeting notes and minutes, research notes and writings, and printed materials. The largest group of records concerns the writing and publication of Masterpieces of Modern Art, The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection. Miller's curatorial work for David Rockefeller and the Rockefeller University's Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall art collection is documented in Series 4 through curatorial files, correspondence, printed materials, photographs and slides, artists files, and design records.

Series 5 contains files relating to Miller's work as art consultant to the Chase Manhattan Bank and the building of the corporation's extensive collection of contemporary art. There is a draft of Miller's text for the bank's published catalog, Art At Work: Chase Manhattan Bank Collection. A smaller set of records is found in Series 6 documenting Miller's work on the Art Committee of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, including files about selecting artwork for the World Trade Center during the early 1970s. Files concerning Miller's advisory work with additional public and private clients, boards, and commissions are arranged in Series 7 and 8 and concern the Amstar Corporation, Fidelity International Bank, First National Bank of Tampa, First National City Bank (Citibank), Inmont Corporation, Pepsico, United Mutual Savings Bank, the Empire State Plaza Art Commission, the Hancock Shaker Village, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Mark Rothko Foundation, the Museum of American Folk Art, and the Smith College Museum of Art.

Miller's papers include a small group of files relating to the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP)created by her husband Holger Cahill when he was director of the FAP, Holger Cahill. A small series is devoted to Miller's work with Eleanore Price Mather researching and writing Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdom and Other Paintings. A series of general research files contain miscellaneous research notes and photographs related to Miller's interests in early American art and folk art. Series 12 contains important documentation of Miller's early curatorial work with Holger Cahill on the First Municipal Art Exhibition (1934) held at the RCA Building in Rockefeller Center.

Works of art are primarily in the form of Christmas cards sent to Miller by various artists including Elise Asher, Lyonel Feininger, Bernard Karpel, and Irene Rice Pereira. A small group of photographs includes photographs of Miller from 1926-circa 1950 and a few photographs of others.

Arrangement and Series Description

The collection is arranged as 14 series:

• Series 1: General Biographical Material, 1917-1986 (Box 1; 0.3 linear ft.)
• Series 2: Correspondence and Subject Files, circa 1912-1992 (Boxes 1-8, OV 27; 7.2 linear ft.)
• Series 3: Rockefeller Family Art Collections, circa 1949-1985 (Boxes 8-12, 25; 3.9 linear ft.)
• Series 4: Rockefeller University Collection, 1923-1984 (Boxes 12-13, OV 27; 1.0 linear ft.)
• Series 5: Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, 1959-circa 1985 (Boxes 13-14, 26; 1.4 linear ft.)
• Series 6: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Art Committee, circa 1965-1987 (Boxes 14-15, OV 27; 0.8 linear ft.)
• Series 7: Other Corporate and Private Clients, 1968-1984 (Boxes 15-16; 1.3 linear ft.)
• Series 8: Other Boards, Committees and Commissions, 1925, 1949-1985 (Boxes 16-20; 3.6 linear ft.)
• Series 9: Works Project Administration Federal Art Project Files, 1935-1979 (Box 20, OV 27; 0.5 linear ft.)
• Series 10: Edward Hicks Catalog, 1934-1984 (Boxes 20-22; 1.5 linear ft.)
• Series 11: Research Files, 1930s-1980 (Boxes 22-23; 0.8 linear ft.)
• Series 12: Exhibition Files, 1932-1986 (Box 23; 0.6 linear ft.)
• Series 13: Works of Art, circa 1924-circa 1982 (Boxes 23-25; 1.5 linear ft.)
• Series 14: Photographs, 1926-circa 1970s (Boxes 24-25; 0.3 linear ft.)

Subjects and Names

Provenance

The collection was donated by Dorothy C. Miller via Wendy Jeffers between 1986 and 1997, and Reid White, Executor of Miller's estate, in 2004.

Separated and Related Materials

The Archives of American Art holds two oral history interviews with Dorothy C. Miller. The first was conducted by Paul Cummings between May 26, 1970 and September 28, 1971, and details Miller's life from childhood up to, and including, her years at the Museum of Modern Art. The second was conducted by Avis Berman on May 14, 1981 and covers Miller's relationships with Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. Also found among the holdings of the Archives are the papers of Holger Cahill, Dorothy Miller's husband and colleague.

The Museum of Modern Art Achives holds Dorothy Miller's papers related to her curatorial work at the museum.

How the Collection was Processed

Portions of the Dorothy C. Miller papers were initially microfilmed in separate accretions upon receipt on reels NDA 15, 1105-1110, 3482, and 5285-5299, no longer in circulation. All accessions were merged and the papers were processed to a preliminary level by Ambika Sankaran in 2006 and to an intermediate level by Stephanie Ashley in 2008 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. The finding aid was prepard by Stephanie Ashley and Barbara Aikens in 2010-2011.

How to Use the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Use of original papers requires an appointment.

Ownership & Literary Rights

The Dorothy C. Miller papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.

How to Cite this Collection

Dorothy C. Miller papers, circa 1912-1992, bulk 1959-1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

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Detailed Description and Container Inventory

Series 1: General Biographical Material, 1917-1986 (Box 1; 0.3 linear ft.)

Scattered biographical materials primarily document Miller's education, awards, degrees, honors, and family history.

Series 2: Correspondence and Subject Files, circa 1912-1992 (Boxes 1-8, OV 27; 7.2 linear ft.)

This series contains Miller's personal and professional correspondence and subject files on individuals or subjects. Individual files may contain correspondence, photographs, printed materials, research notes, essays and other writings, and scattered artwork. There is correspondence with galleries, museums, art associations, artists and other individuals from the art world, including Alfred Barr, Alexander Calder, John Canaday, Chryssa, Grace Hartigan, Will Horwitt, Ray Johnson, Miller and Cahill family members, Louise Nevelson, William Scharf, Hedda Sterne, Clyfford Still, and many others. Correspondence includes sketches and drawings by Lewin Alcopley, Will Horwitt, Gaston Gerreaud, Ray Johnson, Fred Martin, and Robert Osborn. Files on Louise Nevelson include photographs of Miller and Nevelson, including ones taken at the dedication of Nevelson's sculpture at the World Trade Center in January 1979. The files on Chryssa contain photographs of the artist's studio.

Files are arranged alphabetically by name or subject. For each letter of the alphabet, individually named files are followed by "Miscellaneous" files containing scattered correspondence with multiple correspondents.

Series 3: Rockefeller Family Art Collections, circa 1949-1985 (Boxes 8-12, 25; 3.9 linear ft.)

This series documents Miller's consulting work with members of the Rockefeller family, primarily Nelson A. Rockefeller.

This series is arranged as 2 subseries:

• 3.1: Nelson A. Rockefeller, circa 1949-1985
• 3.2: Other Rockefeller Family Members, 1956-1981

3.1: Nelson A. Rockefeller, circa 1949-1985

Found here is signficant documentation of Miller's private curatorial and advisory work for Nelson Rockfeller, including the building his private collection and furnishing modern art work in public offices associated with Rockefeller. Also found here are files relating to the writing and publication of Miller's extensive catalog, Masterpieces of Modern Art, The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1981.)

There is general correspondence between Miller and Rockefeller concerning building the collection, often including Miller's handwritten notes, printed material related to artists and occasional photographs of artwork. Personal correspondence consists primarily of letters from Rockefeller to Miller thanking her for advice, assistance and gifts. Additional correspondence documents Miller's difficulties in securing payment for her years of work on the published catalog because Rockefeller died before the book was completed without having signed a formal contract with Miller.

Additional files document federal government projects Miller completed for Rockefeller, including offering a selection of paintings to the Shah of Iran; a loan of artwork from the Museum of Modern Art to display in Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's State Department office; and providing artwork to furnish the nation's first official Vice-Presidential residence at the Admiral's House in Washington D.C. during Rockefeller's tenure as Vice President. Additionally, files document Miller's work with the Curatorial Committee for the Rockefeller collection at Kykuit and the family's home in Tarrytown, New York.

There are files related to the 1969 exhibitions of Rockefeller collections at the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Primitive Art, and Rockefeller gifts to the Museum of Modern Art. Records relating to sculpture by Frederick Kiesler and tapestries by Joan Miró and Alexander Calder which Rockefeller considered for purchase are also included here.

Most of the files in this subseries document Miller's work writing, compiling, and publishing The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection: Masterpieces of Modern Art, which was based on the earlier catalog she wrote for the exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1969. Records include correspondence, printed material, photos and photocopies of artwork, detailed information about individual works of art, meeting notes, drafts of the foreword and preface by Miller, and book copy text by John Russell, Alfred Barr, and Rockefeller. Additional files concern copy layout and illustrations for the book.

3.2: Other Rockefeller Family Members, 1956-1981

Miller's consulting work with Blanchette Rockefeller (Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, III) and David and Peggy Rockefeller is documented here. Files relating to Blanchette Rockefeller primarily concern her purchases from the Museum of Modern Art's 1965 exhibition The New Japanese Painting and Sculpture.

Miller's notes and correspondence with David and Peggy Rockefeller are about her suggestions for acquisitions. Of particular interest is Miller's 1976 letter to David Rockefeller in which she recalls her first encounter with Morris Graves and seeing his artwork for the first time. Rockefeller purchased Graves's painting Shore Birds in 1977.

Also found here is correspondence relating to David Rockefeller's acquisitions from the Edith G. Halpert collection sold at auction in 1973 by Parke-Bernet. Additional files document Miller's research into acquisitions of folk art for the Rockefellers and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection. Additional documentation of Miller's work for David Rockefeller in relation to the Rockefeller University Collection is found in the next subseries.

Series 4: Rockefeller University Collection, 1923-1984 (Boxes 12-13, OV 27; 1.0 linear ft.)

Miller's curatorial and consulting work with the Rockefeller University (formerly Rockefeller Institute) committee and David Rockefeller to build an art collection for the University's Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall are arranged here. These include correspondence, notes, printed material, photographs and slides; artists' files, an exhibition file, design plans.

Series 5: Chase Manhattan Bank Art Collection Committee, 1959-circa 1985 (Boxes 13-14, 26; 1.4 linear ft.)

This series documents Miller's work as an art consultant to the Chase Manhattan Bank and founding member of the bank's art collection committee in 1959. Files here trace the development of the Chase collection from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s.

Records include a series of files labeled "Catalogs of Artwork" which provide detailed lists of all artwork; committee files containing correspondence and memoranda between members of the art committee including Miller, Alfred Barr, Robert Hale, Perry Rathbone, David Rockefeller (then the bank's president) and James Johnson Sweeney; committee meeting minutes, agendas, and reports; catalogs of the bank's acquisitions and collection; and news clippings. There is also correspondence with the Chase curator Mary Lanier and art institutions and galleries.

A draft of Miller's text for the bank's published catalog of essays, Art At Work: Chase Manhattan Bank Collection is filed in this series, as well as an interview transcript with Miller conducted by Peter Morin of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, about the exhibition, Chase Manhattan: the First 10 Years of Collecting, 1959-1969.

Series 6: Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Art Committee, circa 1965-1987 (Boxes 14-15, OV 27; 0.8 linear ft.)

In 1969 Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANJY) Austin J. Tobin established a committee to commission and acquire artwork for PANJY's facilities and hired Miller as the primary art consultant. Files are found here that document Miller's work with the committee, including committee meeting minutes and agendas, correspondence and notes, printed materials, photographs.

Several files are related to Miller's work with the committee for selecting artwork for the World Trade Center in the early 1970s. These contain letters from Alexander Calder discussing the purchase of Calder's World Trade Center Stabile, also known as Three Wings and The Cockeyed Propeller which was originally commissioned for the entrance to 1 World Trade Center on West Street, but was moved around the plaza over time. One of Calder's letters is illustrated with a picture indicating how he wanted the stabile's "feet" to be installed. Also found here are several photographs of Calder and his mobiles and stabiles, letters from Joan Miró, Chryssa, and photographs of artwork by other artists.

One file in this series contains writings by Miller concerning the collections of the PANJY.

Series 7: Other Corporate and Private Clients, 1968-1984 (Boxes 15-16; 1.3 linear ft.)

Miller's consulting work with other corporate and private clients is documented here with correspondence, printed material, sketches, photographs, and slides.

Series 8: Other Boards, Committees and Commissions, 1925, 1949-1985 (Boxes 16-20; 3.6 linear ft.)

Following her retirement from the Museum of Modern Art, Miller served on a variety of public and private boards, commissions, and committees for art museums and institutions. The majority of these files contain correspondence, meeting minutes and reports, notes, legal records, and printed material.

The series is arranged as 6 subseries by museum or organization:

• 8.1: Empire State Plaza Art Commission, 1965-1978
• 8.2: Hancock Shaker Village, Shaker Community, Inc., Board of Trustees, 1949-1985
• 8.3: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Board of Trustees, 1976-1985
• 8.4: Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., Board of Directors, 1966-1985
• 8.5: Museum of American Folk Art Board of Trustees, 1962-1969
• 8.6: Smith College Museum of Art Visiting Committee, 1925, 1961-1984

8.1 Empire State Plaza Art Commission, 1965-1978

Found here are records of Miller's activities as one of five members of the Art Commission for the Empire State Plaza (also known as the South Mall) in Albany, New York, built under the governorship of Nelson A. Rockefeller between 1965 and 1978. The files include scattered correspondence with artists Chryssa, Jason Seley, Daniel LaRue Johnson, and Gene Davis.

8.2: Hancock Shaker Village, Shaker Community, Inc., Board of Trustees, 1949-1985

Miller's work as a member of the Board of Trustees of Shaker Community, Inc. which oversaw the operations of Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts is documented here through correspondence with village founder Amy Bess Miller, notes; meeting minutes and other meeting materials; financial records; and printed material. Trustee files for 1961 contain a letter to Miller from Andrew Wyeth.

8.3: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Board of Trustees, 1976-1985

Miller served on the Board of Trustees for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from 1976 - 1984. Found here are files relating to her work as a trustee.

8.4: Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., Board of Directors, 1966-1985

Dorothy Miller served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Mark Rothko Foundation following a major lawsuit that ensued after Rothko's death in 1970 between the family, executors of the estate, and Marlborough Gallery. In 1977, the litigation ended with Rothko Prizel gaining control of the estate and re-establishing the foundation and its board. Files arranged here document the foundation's efforts to rebuild and determine the best use of Rothko's paintings for the public interest.

8.5: Museum of American Folk Art Board of Trustees, 1962-1969

Found here is one folder of material with scattered documentation of Miller's work as a member of the board of trustees for the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City.

8.6: Smith College Museum of Art Visiting Committee, 1925, 1961-1984

Dorothy Miller's files concerning her work on the Smith College Museum of Art Visiting Committee are arranged here.

Series 9: Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project Files, 1935-1979 (Box 20, OV 27; 0.5 linear ft.)

Some of Holger Cahill's files relating to his work as director of the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) remained with Dorothy Miller, including a series of essays written primarily by FAP artists which Cahill intended to publish, but had not before his death in 1960. This series contains both Cahill's files and Miller's files relating to subsequent FAP research efforts by others. There are two folders of correspondence and other material concerning Miller's work with art historian Francis O'Connor in collecting, organizing, and editing the FAP artist essays that Cahill had saved and which were ultimately published as Art for the Millions: Essays from the 1930s by Artists and Administrators of the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1975). In the mid-1960s Miller began donating Cahill's FAP records to the Archives of American Art and scattered correspondence related to this disposition can be found here.

Miller also worked with the Newark Museum in 1978-1979 on the exhibition Murals Without Walls which celebrated the recovery of two large panels of Arshile Gorky's "lost" murals painted for the Newark Airport in 1936-1937 under the FAP. There are files of Miller's correspondence with the museum about the project wherein she provided information about the Gorky murals from Cahill's FAP files.

Additional files document inquiries relating to poster artists and referrals that Miller made to the Office of War Information Graphics Division following the closure of the FAP; an exhibition The Thirties: Reaction to a Crisis held at the Lowe Art Center in April 1974; and a folder of five copies of letters from Holger Cahill to artist Mitchell Siporin. There is also a folder containing copies of a text written by Miller for an exhibition she organized and was circulated by the Museum of Modern Art entitled The U.S. Government Art Projects: Some Distinguished Alumni.

Series 10: Edward Hicks Catalog, 1934-1984 (Boxes 20-22; 21.5 linear ft.)

This series documents Miller's collaborative work with Eleanore Price Mather to compile and publish the monograph Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdoms and Other Paintings (University of Delaware Press, Newark, 1983).

Materials include correspondence between Miller and Mather and others, notes, Christmas cards with reproductions of artwork by Hicks, contract files, lists, research files, printed material, and annotated photographs of artwork.

Series 11: General Research Files, 1930s-1980 (Boxes 22-23; 0.8 linear ft.)

This series contains materials relating to Miller's research projects and interests, particularly focusing on early American art and American folk art. Found here is correspondence, some of which relates to her curatorial work at MOMA. There is correspondence with Ed Fuller regarding his work about sculptor William Edmondson and with Wanda Corn about her research on American folk art. Also found are notes and correspondence providing scattered documentation of the collecting activities of Holger Cahill, Edith Halpert, Miller and others during the 1930s-1940s, and on folk art exhibitions organized by Cahill, as well as printed material, such as news clippings and journal articles on the subject of American folk art.

The bulk of the series is comprised of photographs of artwork.

Series 12: Exhibition Files, 1932-1986 (Box 23; 0.6 linear ft.)

This series contains materials related to three exhibitions. A press release and a label is found for the landmark exhibition American Folk Art: The Art of the Common Man in America, organized by Holger Cahill for the Museum of Modern Art in 1932-1933. Also found here are two copies of the catalog and index cards of artwork for the First Municipal Art Exhibition (1934) organized by Miller and Cahill and shown at the Rockefeller Center in New York; one catalog is annotated with addresses of the artists. Additional scattered documents concern the galleries or Salons of America of the exhibition.

One folder relates to the exhibition Dorothy C. Miller: With An Eye to American Art, held at the Smith College Museum of Art in 1985 that was inspired by Miller's famous series of "American" shows at MOMA.

Series 13: Works of Art, circa 1924-circa 1982 (Boxes 23-25; 1.5 linear ft.)

Original artwork consists primarily of a large collection of artists' greeting cards sent to Dorothy Miller and Holger Cahill. There are also a few scattered sketches and drawings. Artists include Elise Asher, Ilya Bolotowsky, Bernard Childs, Lew Davis, Jay DeFeo, Rene d' Harnoncourt, Lyonel Feininger, Pop Hart, Grace Hartigan, Bernard Karpel, Stanley Landsmen, William Littlefield, Agnes Sims and Hiram Williams.

Artwork is arranged alphabetically by name of artist.

Series 14: Photographs, 1926-circa 1970s (Boxes 24-25; 0.3 linear ft.)

Photographs are of Dorothy Miller, including portraits by Soichi Sunami, and of Miller with others, including Bernard Pfriem. There are two prints and a series of 9 transparencies labeled as having been taken by artist Lyonel Feininger of Miller in the 1950s. There are also photographs of Holger Cahill and Curt Valentin. Also found are transparencies of a portrait of Holger Cahill by Icelandic artist Nina Tryggvadottir.