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Guide to the Anastasia Miller papers
MC 36
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Title: Anastasia Miller papers
Dates: 1918/1973
Dates: 1918/1919
Collection number: MC 36
Creator:
Miller, Anastasia
Collection Size:
.1 linear ft.
(2 folders)
Repository:
Sacramento Public Library. Sacramento Room
Sacramento, California 95814
Abstract: Anastasia Elizabeth Miller (1887-1973) served for the American Red Cross as a nurse on the front lines in France during World
War I and returned home to Sacramento to head the city's Well Baby Clinic for thirty years. These papers consist of eight
war letters written by Anastasia Miller to family members (1918-1919), later newspaper clippings with biographical information
on Miller, and a portrait of her in nurse's uniform.
Physical location: For current information on the location of these materials, please contact the Sacramento Room.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Collection is open for research.
Use of the described materials may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Sacramento Public Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Anastasia Miller papers, MC 36, Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, California.
Anastasia Miller was the first of nine children born to Benjamin William and Margaret Miller on December 31, 1887, in San
Francisco, Calif. She graduated from a nursing program at St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco, and worked at area hospitals
until moving to Sacramento in 1914. There, Miller reorganized the Mater Misercordiae Hospital Training School and was superintendent
of nurses until the spring of 1918, when she became one of twelve Red Cross nurses from Sacramento to serve overseas. Miller
served on the front lines in France through the end of WWI, working with refugees and treating wounded soldiers at an advanced
dressing station.
After the war, Miller founded the Red Cross' Mothers' Educational Center, which was later funded by the City and became known
as the Sacramento Well Baby Clinic. In 1922, she formed the Public Health Nurses Association, District 7 (covering Northern
California) and in 1930, was elected International Delegate to the World Hygiene Congress by the national association. Beloved
in the Sacramento community for her commitment to public health, Miller was honored by the Elks Club as Outstanding Woman
in 1947 and the Sacramento Soroptimist Club selected her as its first Woman of the Year in 1952 upon her retirement from three
decades of service as director of the Well Baby Clinic. She died on February 15, 1973, in Mountain View, Calif.
The papers consist of eight war letters written by Anastasia Miller to family members from 1918 to 1919, later newspaper clippings
with biographical information, and her portrait photograph in nurse's uniform, ca. 1920. The letters date from March 1918
to May 1919. Typed letters are addressed to her family back home in San Francisco, "Mama, Papa and all," and three handwritten
letters are written to her brother, Benjamin Miller and his wife, Harriet ("Hattie"). Letters written in March and April of
1918 describe her time in New York City and later Paris as she prepared to go to the war zone. In letters written in May
and July, she reports on arriving in the war zone, caring for French refugees and working at an advanced dressing station
with American, French and British soldiers and German prisoners suffering from injuries due to bombs, gas, machine gun fire
and shrapnel. In December, she writes about volunteering for a possible assignment in Archangel, Russia, and describes seeing
the Allied Victory Parade through the Arc de Triomphe. Her final two letters written in 1919 are addressed from Southern
France to Benjamin and Harriet Miller and concern her preparations for returning home.
Newspaper clippings include a funeral notice and lengthy obituaries, and an article about winning the Elks Club's Outstanding
Woman award in 1947.