Skip to main content

Dorothy M. Miller Collection

 Collection
Identifier: WV 0198

Content Description

The collection includes a 2001 February oral history transcript; copy of Honorable Discharge Certificate, 1946; and a photograph with Miller in uniform and standing with 2 other African American Women's Army Corps (WAC), 1945.

Dates

  • circa 1946-2001

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information. Please see our Sensitive Materials Statement.

Biographical / Historical

Dorothy May Miller (1922-2005) of Lakeland, Florida, was a medical technician and mail clerk in African American units of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and the Women's Army Corps during World War II.

Dorothy Thelma May Miller was born 11 February 1922 in Sandersville, Georgia, and raised in Lakeland, Florida, by her mother, a schoolteacher and domestic. Miller attended Washington Park High School in Rochelle, Florida, but dropped out to have her first child.

She enlisted in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on 1 March 1943. Miller entered active duty on 20 April 1943 and was sent to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, for basic training. When the WAAC became the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in the spring of 1943, Miller was sent to Fort Des Moines, Iowa, for advanced basic training. She became a medical technician at Camp Forest, Tennessee, and worked in the hospital operating room. One year later, she was transferred to Fort Benning, Georgia, where she was assigned to the post office as a mail clerk.

Miller was discharged as a corporal from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on 6 January 1946. Shortly after the war Miller got married. When her husband died in 1948, she went to the Don Thompson Vocation School in Tampa, Florida, on the GI Bill. There she met and married Dan Miller.

While raising their two children, Miller also worked as a teacher's aide, a switchboard operator for the city of Tampa, a receptionist with the Tampa Department of Sanitary Sewers, and in a crippled children's clinic. She retired in 1983. In her retirement, Miller was active in several veterans' organizations and known for her handmade African American dolls.

Extent

0.21 Linear Feet (2 folders )

Language of Materials

English

Metadata Rights Declarations

  • License: This record is made available under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Condition Description

The condition is good.

Offensive Language Statement

The UNC Greensboro University Libraries collects, preserves, and makes accessible unique and historical materials for learning and research. The nature of historical materials is such that some material may represent positions, norms, and values that are offensive and objectionable. These materials represent the opinions and actions of their creators. By providing access to these records in our reading room and through our digital collections, we recognize that archives and rare books can play a vital role in holding those creators accountable and in helping us learn from the past.

Our finding aids and other collection descriptions may occasionally re-use language provided by creators or former holders of the materials, but we strive to place outdated or offensive terminology in context. That said, we recognize that we may not always make the right decision and welcome feedback from all sources so we can learn and adjust our practices. Please contact us at scua@uncg.edu if you encounter problematic language in our finding aids or other collection description. We will review the language and, as appropriate, update it in a way that balances preservation of the original context with our ongoing commitment to describing materials with respectful and inclusive language.

Processing Information

Processed by Matthew McCarthy.

Title
Dorothy M. Miller Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Matthew McCarthy
Date
2022 July
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
eng

Repository Details

Part of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives Repository

Contact:
P.O. Box 26170
320 College Ave.
Greensboro NC 27402-6170 US
336-334-5246