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)

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. 

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)

More than a year before Ezra Stoller photographed the Miller House and Garden, Girard comments that Architectural Forum’s “color reproduction is improving.” Of the twelve photographs published in Architectural Forum, two were color reproductions.

Alexander H. Girard to J. Irwin Miller, 13 February 1957, 2/9, Miller House and Garden Collection, IMA Archives, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana. (MHG_Ia_B002_f009_087)