Lillian B. Miller (1923–1997) was an American art historian who served as historian of American culture at the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...

. She was known for her work studying

Charles Willson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American Painting, painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolu ...

and his family.

Biography

Lillian Beresnack was born in 1923 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

to Lithuanian and Russian immigrant parents. She was the daughter of a Kosher butcher. As a child, her passion was literature. She attended

Dorchester High School for Girls Dorchester High School for Girls is a defunct four-year public high school that served students in ninth through twelfth grades, that was located in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States from 1925 to 1953. History ...

. Beresnack then matriculated to

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

, becoming the first member of her family to attend college. She commuted from the

Mattapan Mattapan () is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. Historically a section of neighboring Dorchester, Mattapan became a part of Boston when Dorchester was annexed in 1870. Mattapan is the original Native American name for the Dorchester ar ...

neighborhood of Boston and worked as a secretary. She graduated Radcliffe in 1943 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in American history and literature. She then attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

as a graduate student, where she worked as a secretary to historian

Jacques Barzun Jacques Martin Barzun (; November 30, 1907 – October 25, 2012) was a French-American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, and ...

and literary professor

Lionel Trilling Lionel Mordecai Trilling (July 4, 1905 – November 5, 1975) was an American literary critic, short story writer, essayist, and teacher. He was one of the leading U.S. critics of the 20th century who analyzed the contemporary cultural, social, ...

. She ultimately received an A.M. and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in American history from Columbia. When Mary McCarthy left her teaching job at

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...

in 1947, Barzun and Trilling recommended Beresnack as a replacement, and she ultimately taught there for three years. In 1948, she married Nathan Miller, an economics historian whom she met in a seminar on American history. In the 1950s, the Millers were living in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and having children. Miller was rejected for an

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...

fellowship because she was pregnant. In 1960, both Millers went to work at

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscons ...

, where the university abandoned a nepotism rule to allow them to teach in the same history department. In the late 1960s, Miller published her dissertation, "Patrons and Patriotism: The Encouragement of Fine Arts in the United States: 1790–1860". This ultimately led to her getting a job as historian of the Smithsonian Institution's

in 1971. The Millers thus moved to

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

; her husband, who maintained his professor post at UWM, commuted to Milwaukee. In 1981, she took a professor job at the

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

while maintaining her position at the Smithsonian. Miller died on November 27, 1997, of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

Georgetown University Hospital MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is one of the Washington, D.C. area's oldest academic teaching hospitals. It is a not-for-profit, acute care teaching and research facility located in the Georgetown neighborhood of the Northwest Quadrant ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Lillian B. 1923 births 1997 deaths American art historians University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee faculty Smithsonian Institution people Rochester Institute of Technology faculty Historians from Massachusetts People from Boston Radcliffe College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American people of Lithuanian descent