The majority of the collection consists of scholarly articles collected by Miller on a wide
variety of subjects in the geosciences. Some of these are signed presentation copies.
The personal papers include the dissertation and several unpublished essays written by
Miller during his graduate studies at the University of California-Los Angeles in the 1950s.
The papers also document Miller's tenure with the Cooperative Snow Investigations (SI), a
joint venture of the U.S. Weather Bureau and the Civil Works Division of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers. The program was initiated in 1945 to develop methods of forecasting seasonal
and short-term stream flow resulting from snowmelt or combined snowmelt and rain. The
results of the snow investigations were used in the design of flood-control structures and
the spillways of all types of dams, to improve flood-warning systems, and to control
allocation of industrial, municipal, power and irrigation water resources. To accomplish its
objectives, the SI established three field research laboratories: the Central Sierra Snow
Laboratory (California), the Upper Columbia Snow Laboratory (Montana), and the Willamette
Basin Snow Laboratory (Oregon). Of these three, Miller was most familiar with the Central
Sierra Snow Laboratory. Assessing the importance of the program, one scholar writes that
many of the "the fundamentals of snow physics and hydrology were developed during the
Cooperative Snow Investigations of 1945-1952, largely at CSSL . . . Since then, most snow
research has been building on those fundamentals and refining some of the details." The
results of research conducted by the SI are published in Snow
Hydrology: Summary Report of the Snow Investigations and various technical
reports.
Miller's academic career is documented by drafts of numerous published articles and
conference presentations, and by a file of course handouts. His tenure at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee is documented primarily in a file of course materials.
