The Thomas A. Edison Papers Digital Edition

[This folder has not been completely edited. Letters are currently being added, and documents identified as "to be edited" may not have images or complete database information. In addition, the information in the folder target (editorial description) may not be up-to-date.]

These letters are from Edward B. Miller (1859-1936) to his younger sister, Mina Miller Edison. There is also one letter by Elizabeth Lewis ("Betsy") Miller, whom Edward married around 1919. The selected letters cover the years 1886-1896, 1918, and 1930-1932. Included among the four letters from 1886 are references to a visit by Mina's parents to Fort Myers, Florida, where Thomas and Mina were spending their honeymoon. There is also mention of a visit by Ed to Glenmont, the Edison home in Llewellyn Park, after which he pronounced Mina to be a "good house keeper." Ed's plans to go to Mexico are mentioned in several of the letters. The three letters from 1893-1896 discuss the impact of the Panic of 1893 on Aultman, Miller & Co. and other Miller family businesses.

A letter written on June 11, 1918, shortly after Ed returned to Ohio from a visit to West Orange, comments on the death of Akron-born tenor Harry Evan Williams and observes that, like the people he saw in the east, everyone around Akron "is after money for the war funds." An undated letter written shortly after Christmas, probably in January 1930, mentions the purchase of a new home in Akron and a possible trip to Florida, where Thomas and Mina were vacationing. A letter written from Lakeland, Florida, on April 18, 1930, refers to a recent visit to Fort Myers by Ed and Betsy. A letter from February 1931 comments on the birth of the fourth Edison grandchild, Michael Edison Sloane, and on the declining health of Thomas Edison.

There are approximately 30 letters to and from Edward and Betsy Miller in Book #6 on the Charles Edison Fund microfilm. Click here for a list of all the correspondence books on the CEF microfilm. Additional letters by Edward B. Miller, formerly in the CEF Collection, can be found in the Family Records Series in Part III and Part V of the Thomas A. Edison Papers digital edition. A few other letters can be found in the David E. E. Sloane Collection.