Donald G. Miller Research Materials
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
Copyright 2022
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
spcoll@ucsd.edu
Descriptive Summary
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: Donald G. Miller Research Materials
Creator:
Miller, Donald Gabriel (1927-2012)
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0754
Physical Description:
1.2 Linear feet
(2 archives boxes, 1 card file box)
Date (inclusive): 1860-2003 (bulk 1956-1980)
Abstract: Research materials of Donald Gabriel Miller (1927-2012), an American physical chemist and science historian. The collection
includes correspondence, notes, writings, photographs, interview transcripts and sound recordings regarding European and American
physicists and chemists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Languages:
English
.
Scope and Content of Collection
Research materials of Donald Gabriel Miller (1927-2012), an American physical chemist and science historian. The collection
includes correspondence, notes, writings, photographs, interview transcripts and sound recordings regarding European and American
physicists and chemists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The correspondence is in French and English.
Arranged in four series: 1) CORRESPONDENCE, 2) WRITINGS, 3) RESEARCH PROJECTS, and 4) SOUND RECORDINGS.
Biography
Donald Gabriel Miller was born October 29, 1927 in Oakland, California. After earning a B.S. in chemistry at UC Berkeley in
1949 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1952, he was employed as a chemist
at the University of Louisville and at Brookhaven National Laboratory. He also taught as an adjunct professor or visiting
professor at various universities in the United States, France, Italy, and Australia. In 1956, he was hired as a chemist at
the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he remained until 1992. Miller published more than 170 papers in physical
chemistry, ballistics, and the history of science; one of his papers was referenced by chemist Lars Onsager in his Nobel Prize
acceptance speech.
Miller began studying the work of nineteenth century French physicist and philosopher of science Pierre Duhem (1861-1916)
in 1957, corresponding with his daughter, Hélène Pierre-Duhem (1891-1974), and with Duhem's colleagues. In 1960, he received
a Fulbright Fellowship to study in France, where he returned frequently. Concerned that Duhem's letters, then owned by Pierre-Duhem,
might become lost or destroyed, Miller applied for funding to create preservation copies of the correspondence. In 1966 he
was awarded a grant from the University of California Academic Senate, sponsored by UC San Diego chemist Stanley L. Miller.
Donald Miller's published articles on Duhem increased interest by historians in his work, and the Duhem correspondence was
purchased by the Institut de France Académie des sciences in 1980.
In addition to his work in the physical sciences and the history of science, Miller was known as a civic activist. He served
as mayor, city council member, and planning commission member in the city of Livermore, lobbying for reduced housing density,
clean air, open space, and cultural resources. Miller was a member of the American Chemical Society, the Mathematics Association
of America, Sigma Xi, the Association for Symbolic Logic, and the History of Science Dinner Club in Berkeley. He died on February
3, 2012 in Livermore, California.
Preferred Citation
Donald G. Miller Research Materials. MSS 754. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Acquisition Information
Acquired 2013
Publication Rights
Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.
Restrictions
Original audio recordings are restricted. Listening copies may be available.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Miller, Donald Gabriel (1927-2012) -- Archives
Duhem, Hélène -- Correspondence
Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie, 1861-1916 -- Correspondence
Box 1, Folder 1
Archives Nationales, France
1963-1965
Box 1, Folder 2
Brouzeng, Paul
1974-1998
General note
Includes transcription of a report by Pierre Duhem's thesis committee at the École Normale Supérieure, 1885.
Box 1, Folder 8
Dufourcq, Norbert
1963-1973
Box 1, Folder 9
Gallet, Marie-Madeleine and H. Charles Gallet
1963-1980
Box 1, Folder 10
Greenberg, Daniel A.
1965
Box 1, Folder 11
Hadamard, Jacques
1958-1963
Box 1, Folder 14
Institut de France, Académie des Sciences
1957-1963
Box 1, Folder 15
Jaki, Stanley L.
1980-1992
General note
Includes correspondence with Stillman Drake, 1964.
Box 1, Folder 16
Kampé de Féret, Joseph
1961-1963
Box 1, Folder 18
Lepoutre, Gerard
1960-1966
Box 1, Folder 19
Martin, R.N.D. (Niall)
1968-1991
General note
Includes transcriptions of correspondence from Lucien Laberthonnière to Duhem, 1905-1916, from Adrien Pautonnier to Duhem,
1897, and between Duhem and Maurice Blondel, 1893-1916; and a list of Duhem correspondence received by the Académie des Sciences
in 1980.
Box 1, Folder 23
Olphe-Gaillard, Jean
1958-1967
Box 1, Folder 25
Oravas, Gunhard
1968-1969
Box 1, Folder 27
Philpot, John St. L.
1979-1982
General note
Includes draft of unpublished autobiographical talk by Philpot, 1974, and biographical notes on Philpot.
Box 1, Folder 28
Pierre-Duhem, Hélène
1957-1975
Box 1, Folder 29
Piontelli, Roberto
1962-1966
Box 1, Folder 31
Rilbe, Harry
1966-1984
General note
Includes drafts of unpublished autobiographical writings by Rilbe.
Box 1, Folder 32
Russo, François
1965-1972
Box 1, Folder 34
Truesdell, Clifford
1962-1972
Box 1, Folder 35
Université de Bordeaux
1956-1963
Box 1, Folder 36
Correspondence - Miscellaneous
Box 1, Folder 37
Duhem, Pierre-Maurice-Marie. In
Dictionary of Scientific Biography
1965-1971
Box 1, Folder 38
Ignored Intellect: Pierre Duhem. In
Physics Today, vol. 19 no. 12
1966
Box 1, Folder 39
Duhem, Pierre Marie Maurice
1970
Box 1, Folder 40
Review of
Uneasy Genius: The Life and Work of Pierre Duhem by Stanley L. Jaki
1987
Box 1, Folder 41
Donald G. Miller, et al. The Onsager Reciprocal Relations for Ternary Diffusion in the System NaCl-MgCl2-H20 at 25°. Lars
Onsager Symposium, Norwegian Institute of Technology, University of Trondheim
1993 June 2-4
Box 1, Folder 42
The History of Gouy and Rayleigh Diffusion Measurements
1999
Box 1, Folder 43
Diffusion and Thermodynamics in Multicomponent Aqueous Protein Solutions Relevant to Crystal Growth. Institut für Physikalische
Chemie, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule, Aachen
2002 May 29
Box 2, Folder 1
Thermodynamic Data for Ternary Protein Systems from Transport Properties Using the Onsager Reciprocal Relations. Onsager100
Conference, Trondheim
2003 June 15
Box 2, Folder 3
Donald G. Miller and Stanley L. Miller. Report on Examination of Duhem Correspondence
1968 February 1
Box 2, Folder 5
Notes
1966
General note
Includes interview notes with Hélène Pierre-Duhem, Norbert Dufourcq and René Taton.
Box 2, Folder 6-8
Notes on Duhem correspondence
1963-1980
Box 2, Folder 9
Photographs of Pierre Duhem and family
ca. 1860-1916
General note
Includes correspondence from Hélène Pierre-Duhem, 1965.
Box 2, Folder 11
Prigogine, Ilya - Correspondence and transcript of interview by Donald Miller, 1977 September
1975-1977
Box 2, Folder 12
Interview with Lars Onsager by Donald G. Miller at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - Transcripts
1976 May 14
Box 2, Folder 13
Meixner, Josef. Recollections of My Work in Thermodynamics - Draft
1977 July
Box 2, Folder 14
Notes on scientists
1977
General note
Includes notes on Karl Ferdinand Braun, Georg Bredig, Sybren de Groot, and Josef Meixner.
Box 3, Folder 1-2
Lars Onsager interview on the history of irreversible thermodynamics - Audiocassette (2 hours 36 minutes)
1976 May 14
Box 3, Folder 3
Alexander G. Ogston interview on the origin of Gouy measurements by himself and John St. L. Philpot - Audiocassette (60 minutes,
side A)
1979 May 7
Box 3, Folder 4
Gerson Kegeles interview on the origin of the Gouy method of measuring diffusion - Audiocassette (74 minutes)
1979 October 30-31
Box 3, Folder 5-6
Harry Svensson Rilbe interview on the history of optics - Audiocassette (2 hours 45 minutes)
1983 May 26
Box 3, Folder 7
John St. L. Philpot interview at Oxford on the history of optics - Audiocassette (45 minutes, side B)
1983 June 19
Box 3, Folder 8
Michael Creeth interview on diffusion history - Audiocassette (86 minutes)
1985 July 4
