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[X453X-F] Edison, Mina Miller and Chautauqua, 1915-1931

Miller Family Papers

Title: [X453X-F] Edison, Mina Miller and Chautauqua, 1915-1931
Description: [This folder has not been completely edited. The documents flagged as "to be edited" do not have complete database information.]

These documents, which cover the years 1908, 1915, and 1919-1931, relate to Mina Miller Edison's involvement with the Chautauqua Institution. Among the correspondents are Arthur E. Bestor, president of Chautauqua from 1915 until his death in 1944; Cora Dunham (Mrs. Willard W.) Boyd, president of the Chautauqua Bird & Tree Club (1923-1928); Anna Hardwicke (Mrs. Percy V.) Pennybacker, president of the Chautauqua Woman's Club from 1917 until her death in 1938; Julian Gregory, an attorney who did legal work for Edison and Miller families; Richard W. Kellow, head of the Secretarial Service Department of Thomas A. Edison, Personal; and Harry F. Miller, treasurer of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. Other Chautauqua officials and employees mentioned in the documents include Luther H. Cary, head of the Press and Publicity Dept. of Chautauqua and director of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle; Lawrence and Marian Cornell, managers of the Athenaeum Hotel; Ernest Hutcheson, dean and later president of the Julliard School, who was also associated with the Chautauqua School of Music; Roy and Garnet Johnson, caretakers of the Edison properties at Chautauqua; William L. Ransom, attorney, judge, and chairman of the Chautauqua Board of Trustees; Albert F. Stoessel, conductor of the Chautauqua Orchestra and later musical director of Chautauqua; and George E. Vincent, son of co-founder John H. Vincent, one-time suitor of Mina Miller, and president (1907-1915) and honorary president (1915-37) of Chautauqua.
Included are letters relating to fund raising campaigns, efforts to secure donations from Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Mina's own contributions to Chautauqua, and her other philanthropic efforts such as her support for a memorial on the Chautauqua grounds to Rev. Jesse Lyman Hurlbut (1843-1930) and her endowment of a scholarship in honor of her aunt Emily Huntington Miller (1833-1913) to pay the expenses of a young lady attending Chautauqua each summer. The documents from 1929-1931 contain considerable discussion of the creation of a Lewis Miller Foundation—a $100,000 endowment by Mina and other members of the Miller Family that was intended to be a "living memorial" to their father.
Other documents include a newspaper clipping pertaining to Mina's election to the Chautauqua Board of Trustees in 1922 (she was only the fourth woman elected to that position); correspondence with contractors Fakes-Bisbee-Robertson, Inc. and Warren Construction Co. regarding the renovation of the Miller Cottage in 1922 (disputes with the two companies over unpaid bills led to threats of a lawsuit); and letters relating to the acquisition of lots adjoining the Miller Cottage. There are numerous letters relating to the Chautauqua Hotel Co., which operated the Athenaeum Hotel and in which Miller family members owned one-third of the stock. Included are letters pertaining to unsuccessful efforts to sell the family's stock to the Chautauqua Institution in 1915 after the death of Mary Valinda Miller and to the reorganization of the company as the Chautauqua Hotel Corp. in 1931.
In addition, there are references to Mina's involvement in the Founders Day Reception during Anniversary Week in 1924 (commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Chautauqua), the infighting among members of the Bird & Tree Club that led to the resignation of its president Cora Boyd in September 1928, Mina's role on the Scholarship Committee of the Chautauqua Woman's Club, and a 1931 Woman's Club program organized by Mina at which she was supposed to speak (she was unable to do so because of her husband's final illness). There are also references to Mina's unsuccessful efforts to get Lewis Miller and John H. Vincent inducted into the Hall of Fame at New York University, along with remarks about Ell
Identifier: X453X-F
uri: https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/folder/X453X-F
Alternative Title: The Miller Family Papers -- Edison, Mina Miller and Chautauqua, 1915-1931
Is Part Of: Miller Family Papers
Rights: Chautauqua Institution Archives, Chautauqua, N.Y. -- Oliver Archives Center

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