Miller Family Photograph Collection

ca.1880s
2 boxes, 1 oversize envelope (1.25 linear ft.)
Call no.: MS 119
rotating decorative images from SCUA collections

Four generations of the Miller family from Roxbury and Hull, Massachusetts. Includes photographs mounted on twenty-eight sheets of posterboard and 158 slides stored in two slide trays that are comprised of formal and informal family portraits; family businesses; church and business gatherings; a wedding announcement; and postcards from the early 1900s depicting public recreation sites. More recent photographs reveal how the public recreation sites have changed over the years. Robert Parker Miller, a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the Miller family, displayed these images in an exhibit entitled "Trying to Live the American Dream" (1986, Wheeler Gallery).

See similar SCUA collections:

Scope of collection

The collection consists of family photographs and slides of four generations of the Miller family of Roxbury and Hull, Massachusetts, beginning with Melbourne Parker Miller who emigrated from Nova Scotia. Photographs are mounted on twenty-eight sheets of posterboard; 158 slides are stored in two slide trays.

The slides depict a century in the Miller family history, dating from roughly 1880 to 1980. The photographs are comprised of both formal and informal family portraits; family businesses including Miller's Boat Landing in Allerton, Mass., Miller's Bus, Miller Brother's Furniture and Piano Moving in Roxbury, Mass., and Miller and Lakin Express Transfer; church and business gatherings; and a wedding announcement (1914). There are also slides of postcards from the early 1900s depicting public recreation sites including: Atlantic House, Nantasket Beach, Nantasket Beach and Auto Park, Paragon Park, Bath House and Amusements at Paragon Park, Hull from Paddock's Island, Allerton (Mass.) Bayside Station, and Park Island. More recent photographs of these sites illustrate the changes that occurred in these locations over the years, for example photographs showing construction of condominiums.

These images were displayed in an exhibit entitled "Trying to Live the American Dream" (1986, Wheeler Gallery) prepared by Robert Parker Miller, then a student at the University of Massachusetts and a member of the Miller family.

Administrative information

Access

The collection is open for research.

Provenance

Placed on deposit by Robert Parker Miller in 1986.

Processing Information

Processed by Linda Seidman.

Language:

English

Acknowledgments

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Copyright and Use (More information )

Cite as: Miller Family Photograph Collection (MS 119). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Search terms

Subjects

  • Family-United States-History-Pictorial works.
  • Hull (Mass.)-Pictorial works.
  • Massachusetts-Social life and customs-19th century-Pictorial works.
  • Massachusetts-Social life and customs-20th century-Pictorial works.

Contributors

  • Miller Family [main entry]

Genres and formats

  • Photographs.
  • Roxbury (Mass.)-Pictorial works.
  • Slides (photographs)

Link to similar SCUA collections