[Nine letters covering the years 1886, 1916, 1929, and 1931, were added in August 2012.]

These letters are primarily from Ira Mandeville Miller (1856-1934) to his younger sister, Mina Miller Edison, and his brother-in-law, Thomas A. Edison. There are also letters written by his wife, Cora Wise Miller (1864-1935), and his younger daughter, Elizabeth (1892-1962), as well as letters to Elizabeth and Ira from Mina and her secretary. The selected items cover the years 1886-1931. The letters contain references to Edison’s health, including an attack of pneumonia in 1929 and his final illness in 1931; to his experiments with rubber; and to Seminole Lodge, the Edison home in Fort Myers, Florida. Also included are remarks about a radio address that Edison delivered from Florida on his eighty-second birthday in 1929 . In addition, there are comments about the wedding and honeymoon of Ira and Cora, the family’s financial difficulties, and the marital problems of older daughter Margaret (1887-1981), who married Henry O. Newman in 1926.

There are approximately 100 letters and other documents by or about Ira and Cora Miller and their children in Book #10 on the Charles Edison Fund microfilm. Click here for a list of all the correspondence books on the CEF microfilm. Additional letters, formerly in the CEF Collection, can be found in the Family Records Series in Part IV and Part V of the Thomas A. Edison Papers microfilm edition. Two other letters from 1899 can be found in the David E. E. Sloane Collection.

Courtesy of the Charles Edison Fund.