Establishing the Move-In Date. The handwritten note at the bottom of the page establishes the “cut off date” for reporting deficiencies to the contractor as April 6, 1958. We know, then, the Millers moved into their house on April 6, 1957.

Memo from George Newlin to Larry Hoffman, 17 March 1958, 2/11, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_Ia_B002_f011_036)

Establishing the Move-In Date. Writing in March 1958, Leon Yulkowski from Eero Saarinen and Associates advises the contractor’s “guarantee against defective workmanship and material” expires one year after the house was occupied. This letter, however, does not give the date of occupancy.

Letter from Leon Yulkowski to Larry Hoffman, 19 March 1958, 2/11, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_Ia_B002_f011_033)

When House and Garden published its article on the Miller House, it also omitted information about the Millers and the house’s location. House and Garden included thirty of Ezra Stoller’s photographs, many of them in color.

Will Mehlhorn to J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller, 5 December 1958 2/10 (MHG_Ia_B002_f010_013); Maurice Allen, Jr. to Will Mehlhorn, 5 September 1958, 2/10 ((MHG_Ia_B002_f010_079), Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Responding to a letter from Girard, Architectural Forum associate editor Richard A. Miller assures Girard that the magazine will maintain the Millers’ privacy and will allow the Millers, Eero Saarinen, and Girard to check the article’s accuracy prior to publication.

Richard A. Miller to Alexander H. Girard, 29 April 1958, 2/10, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_Ia_B002_f010_143)

When Ezra Stoller photographed the Miller Garden the first week of April, 1958, the trees were not yet in bloom. He was not able to return to Columbus to photograph them for the article in Architectural Forum.

Ezra Stoller to George Newlin, 19 April 1958, 2/11, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_Ia_B002_f011_004)

This trio of letters demonstrates not only the Millers’ restriction on publishing their name, the house’s location, and the construction cost but also the architects and Millers’ insistence on editorial control. 

Alexander H. Girard to Henry Miller, 11 April 1958, 2/11 (MHG_Ia_B002_f011_014); J. Irwin Miller to Eero Saarinen, 15 April 1958, 2/11 (MHG_Ia_B002_f011_012); Alexander H. Girard to Ezra Stoller, 5 May 1958, 2/10 (MHG_Ia_B002_f010_145); Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Less than two weeks before Ezra Stoller photographed the house and garden, George Newlin (who worked for the Millers) wrote to landscape contractor James Maschmeyer to ensure “that the outside planting be completely in order.”

George W. Newlin to James Maschmeyer, 17 March 1958, 2/11 (MHG_Ia_B002_f011_039); George W. Newlin to J. Irwin Miller, 20 March 1958, 2/11 (MHG_Ia_B002_f011_31), Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Alexander Girard, his wife Susan, and his assistant Michael Hamilton staged the Miller House for photographer Ezra Stoller. Among their tasks were obtaining flowers and plants, hanging pictures, and arranging furniture.

Alexander H. Girard to Wanda Henderson, 21 February 1958, 2/11, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_Ia_B002_f011_070-071)

How do you hang pictures on marble walls? This drawing shows the system used at the Miller House. Fitted between the steel beam and the marble wall, the aluminum bar had a wire that passed through it from which the picture was hung. After Monet’s Waterlillies (1919) fell , a heavier wire was used to rehang the painting. 

Pencil drawing of Typical Hanger for Pictures, March 1958, 2/11, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_Ia_B002_f011_042)