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 eight letters are from Robert Anderson Miller, Jr. (1889-1959) to his aunt, Mina Miller Edison. The six dated letters cover the years 1916-1918. A letter to Thomas Edison, written in April 1917 one day before the United States entered World War I, thanks the inventor for his letter recommending Robert for a commission in the Officers' Reserve Corps. A letter dated May 17, 1917, written from Plattsburgh Barracks in upstate New York, announces Robert's engagement to Edith Hotchkiss (1890-1953), whom he married the following May. In other letters sent from Plattsburgh Barracks, Robert comments on the success of Liberty Loan drive at Edison Industries and requests an Edison phonograph for the use of his company. (Mina subsequently sent an Army & Navy phonograph, especially designed for use by the troops.) A letter written in January 1918 from Camp Upton in Long Island, New York, discusses army life and the prospect of being sent to the front in France. An undated letter on stationery of the Yale Club in New York City, possibly written before the war, mentions a recent visit with the Edison family in West Orange and Robert's plans to visit Puerto Rico.

There are approximately 15 letters and other documents by or about Robert A. Miller, Jr. in Book #11 on the Charles Edison Fund microfilm, as well as additional items in Book #35. Click here for a list of all the correspondence books on the CEF microfilm. Three additional letters from Robert to Mina, originally from the CEF Collection, can be found in Part V of the Thomas A. Edison Papers microfilm edition.