John E. Miller Papers

79.0 linear feet (72 record boxes, 4 oversize boxes) photographs, audio-visual materials

The John E. Miller Papers document the academic, professional, and scholarly contributions of Dr. John E. Miller, longtime faculty member in the Department of History at South Dakota State University. The collection includes course materials, oral history interviews, public talks and presentations, manuscripts, published works, and extensive research files. The bulk of the collection centers on Miller’s nationally recognized work on Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane, but also reflects his broader research interests in American history, democracy, political culture, and Midwestern small-town life.

The general material series includes correspondence, photographs, awards, articles about Miller, and records of his involvement with organizations such as the South Dakota Humanities Council, South Dakota State Historical Society, Phi Kappa Phi, and the Midwestern History Association. Course materials reflect Miller’s teaching of U.S. history, South Dakota history, American political thought, and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute courses following his retirement. Talks and presentations span decades of academic conferences, workshops, and public panels, including participation in the Dakota History Conference and Laurapalooza.

The interviews series includes oral histories with figures such as George McGovern and John Wooden, as well as SDSU faculty and administrators. Early recordings were created on audiocassette and later on digital media; some are accompanied by transcripts and release forms. The writings series includes manuscripts, book proposals, article drafts, encyclopedia entries, and collaborative works. Sixteen boxes are devoted to Miller’s research and writing on Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family, comprising handwritten notes, research from archival sources, critiques of other Wilder scholars, and drafts of his own publications.

Miller’s research files cover a wide range of historical figures and topics such as democracy, elections, U.S. and South Dakota history, creativity, and popular culture. Subject files include material on Johnny Carson, Walt Disney, Sam Walton, and Lawrence Welk, as well as materials related to his books Looking for History on Highway 14 and South Dakota State University: A Pictorial History, 1881–2006. Also included are Brookings County historical research drawn from the Donald D. Parker Collection; materials related to the Brookings County Democratic Party donated by Ruby Mershon; and artwork and records concerning Hubert B. Mathews and Hubert Jean Mathieu.

Audiovisual and digital content includes 231 audiocassettes, 10 digital recorders, 17 CDs, 1 DVD, 18 USB flash drives, 24 SD cards, and born-digital materials. These recordings document interviews, lectures, and research materials gathered over the course of his career.

This collection is especially valuable for its preservation of the scholarly legacy of one of South Dakota’s foremost historians. Miller’s research on Laura Ingalls Wilder contributed significantly to American literary and cultural history, and his oral histories and writings provide rich documentation of South Dakota’s political, educational, and social landscape. The materials reflect the intellectual and civic life of the region, while also offering insight into the historian’s role as teacher, writer, and public scholar. The breadth and depth of this collection make it an essential resource for the study of Midwestern identity, public history, American democracy, and the institutional history of South Dakota State University.

The collection is organized into series:
General Material
Course Material
Friends and Colleagues
Interviews
Talks, Presentations, etc.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Writings
Research
Audiovisual and Electronic Media

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• English

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dr. Miller was a very prolific author and wrote many books, book reviews, book chapters, newspaper columns, encyclopedia articles, and conference papers. This is not a complete list.

ARTICLES
100 Years in Grant County, South Dakota, 1878-1978, Editor and author of parts (Grant County Historical Society, Pierre: State Publishing Co., 1979).
American Indians in the Fiction of Laura Ingalls Wilder, South Dakota History, Vol. 30 (Fall 2000), pp. 303-320.

Bruce, South Dakota: 1883-1983, Co-editor and co-author (Bruce Centennial Committee, July, 1983).

A Different Sort of Place on Your Way to the Black Hills, Dakota West, Vol. 13 (March, 1987), pp. 13-15.

Early Settlements and Chapters on Brookings County development from 1879 to 1960, Brookings County History Book, Brookings County History Book Committee, (Freeman, SD: Pine Hill Press, 1989), pp. 25-118, 214-29.

End of an Era: The De Smet High School Class of 1912, South Dakota History, Vol. 20 (Fall, 1990), pp. 185-206.

Epistemology in Flux: Embattled Truth in an Information Age, South Dakota Review, Vol. 24 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 7-20.

Facts and Interpretation in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Town Novels, in Semiotics 1991, John Deely and Terry Prewitt, eds., (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1993), pp. 158-164.

Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer by Nancy C. Unger, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000) in South Dakota History, Vol. 32 (Winter, 2002), pp. 363-364.

Fighting for the cause: the rhetoric and symbolism of the Wisconsin progressive movement, in Wisconsin Magazine of History. Vol. 87, no. 4 (Summer 2004)

Fighting for the Cause: The Rhetoric and Symbolism of the Wisconsin Progressive Movement, Wisconsin Magazine of History, circa 2002.

Freedom and Control in Laura Ingalls Wilders De Smet, Great Plains Quarterly, Vol. 9 (Winter 1989), pp. 27-35.

From South Dakota Farm to Harvard Seminar: Alvin H. Hansen, Americas Prophet of Keynesianism, in The Historian, Vol. 64 (Spring/Summer, 2002): pp. 603-622.

Globalization and Its Metaphors, Minnesota Journal of Global Trade, Vol. 9 (Summer 2000), pp. 594-601.

Gold Rush: The Black Hills Story. John D. McDermott, comp., Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2001. In Great Plains Quarterly (2003).

Governor Philip F. La Follettes Shifting Priorities during the 1930s: From Redistribution to Expansion, Mid-America, Vol. 58 (April-July, 1976), pp. 119-126.

Growing Up with the Town: Family and Community on the Great Plains (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2002) in Annals of Iowa, 2002.

Highway 14 Offers History: Travelers Need to Stop, Look, and Listen, South Dakota Hall of Fame, Vol. 19 (June 199), pp. 12-14.

History Carved on a Mountain, South Dakota Heritage, Centennial Series 7 (1989), pp. 2-5.

Hubert Mathieu: South Dakotas Other Outstanding Illustrator, South Dakota History, Vol 25 (Spring, 1995), pp. 49-63.

Inspired by Manchester: Artist Harvey Dunn Found Inspiration by Returning to His Prairie Hometown, South Dakota Magazine, Vol. 9 (July-August 1993), pp. 20-25.

Lake Wobegon, Minnesota: Investing in the Heartland, Small Town, Vol. 16 (May-June, 1986), pp. 23-28.

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Perspective from 1932, the Year of Publication of Her First Little House Book, Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley, Vol 2, No. 1 (2002), pp. 38-54.

Making It in Indianapolis: The Rise of Calvin Fletcher, The Old Northwest, Vol. 13 (Summer 1987), pp. 163-189.

McCarthyism before McCarthy: The 1938 Election in South Dakota, The 1938 Election in South Dakota, Heritage of the Great Plains, Vol. 15, Summer, 1982, pp. 1-21.

Medary, Capital of Dakota, South Dakota Magazine, Vol. 5 (may-June 1989), pp. 24-25.

Meredith Willson, Iowas Music Man and Ambassador to All the World, Iowa Heritage Illustrated, Vol 82 (Winter 2001), p. 182-191.

Midwestern Regionalism during the 1930s: A Democratic Art with Continuing Appeal, Mid-America: An Historical Review, Vol. 83 (Summer 2001), pp. 71-93.

More Than Statehood on their Minds South Dakota Joins the Union, 1889, Great Plains Quarterly, Vol. 10 (Fall 1990), pp. 206-217.

Notes From a Trip Down Highway 15 in South Dakota, Small Town, Vol. 26:5 (March-April, 1994), pp. 20-23.

Our Cowboy Governor, South Dakota Magazine, Vol. 2 (November 1986), pp. 6-11.

Philip La Follette: Rhetoric and Reality, The Historian, Vol. 45 (November 1982, pp. 65-83.

Place and community in the Little town on the prairie: De Smet in 1883, South Dakota history. Vol. 16 (winter 1986), Pierre, S.D.: South Dakota State Historical Society, 1987, pp. 351-372.F659.D45 M54 1987/978.305 So86.

Politics and Government, chapter in Brookings Centennial, 1879-1979, Commemorative Book (Centennial Book Committee, locally printed 1979), pp. 35-38.

Progressivism and the New Deal: the Wisconsin Works Bill, in Wisconsin magazine of history. Vol. 62, no. 1 (Autumn 1978) pp. 25-40.

Railroad Depots on the Dakota Central in Eastern South Dakota: Functions, Activities, and Meanings, Locus: Regional and Local History of the Americas, Vol. 7 (Spring 1995), pp. 151-169.

Restrained, respectable radicals: the South Dakota Farm Holiday, in Agricultural history (Microfiche).Vol. 59, no. 3 (July 1985), pp. 429-447.

Rose Wilder Lane and Thomas Hart Benton: A Turn Toward History during the 1930s, American Studies, Vol. 37 (Fall 1996), pp. 83-101.

Saturday Nights in Small Towns, Chronicle of Higher Education, (August 11, 1993) p. B40.

Social Indicators and Statistical Literacy, The Social Studies, Vol. 71, (September-October, 1980) pp. 226-229.

South Dakota Elementary and Secondary Education since World War II: A Statistical Portrait, South Dakota History, 2003.

South Dakotas Other Outstanding Illustrator: Hubert Mathieu, South Dakota History, Vol. 25 (Spring 1995), pp. 49-63.

The City of White, White, S.D., 1884-1984, Charles Woodard, Editor (White History Book Committee, 1984), pp. 3-6.

The Distance between Gopher Prairie and Lake Wobegon: Sinclair Lewis and Garrison Keillor on the Small Town Experience, The Centennial Review, Vol.31 (Fall 1987), pp. 432-446.

The Failure to Realign: The 1936 Election in South Dakota, Journal of the West, circa 2002.

The funeral of beloved Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley, in Studies in Midwestern history. Vol. 2, no. 6 (January, 2016).

The Making of Theodore H. Whites The Making of the President 1960, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29 (June 1999), pp. 389-406.

The Old-fashioned Fourth of July: A Photographic Essay on Small-town Celebrations prior to 1930, South Dakota History, Vol. 17 (Summer 1987), pp. 118-139.

The Railroad Comes to Harrold, South Dakota, chapter in Harrold Centennial History Book, 1986.

The Search for Meaning in the History of Small Towns, in The Prairie Frontier, Sandra Looney, Arthur R. Huseboe, and Geoffrey Hunt, eds., (Sioux Falls, SD: Nordland Heritage Foundation, 1984) pp. 153-166.

The South Dakota State University Campanile and the Symbolic Dimensions of Place, South Dakota History, Vol. 23:4 (Winter 1993), pp. 321-345.

The Way They Saw Us: Dakota Territory in the Illustrated News, South Dakota History, Vol. 18 (Winter 1988), pp. 214-244.

Two Visions of the Great Plains: The Plow That Broke the Plains and South Dakotans Reactions to It, Upper Midwest History, Vol. 2, 1982, pp. 1-12.

What You Didn’t Know about Laura Ingalls Wilder, The World & I

BOOKS
Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder: the woman behind the legend, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1998, PS3545.I342 Z769 1998

Democracy and the informed citizen: a South Dakota Perspective, Brookings, South Dakota: Prairie View Press, 2018, JA75.7.M54 2018

Democracy’s troubles: twelve threats to the American ideal and how we can overcome them, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, [2020], JK1726.M576 2020

First we imagine: 22 creative South Dakotans speak on the subject of creativity, Brookings, South Dakota: Brookings Arts Council, 2014, BF408.F57 2014

Governor Philip F. La Follette, the Wisconsin Progressives, and the New Deal, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1982, F586.L3 M54

History of South Dakota, Herbert S. Schell and John and Miller, Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, 2004, F651.S29 2004

Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane: authorship, place, time, and culture, Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008, PS3545.I342 Z7695 2008

Laura Ingalls Wilders little town: where history and literature meet, Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 1994, PS3545.I342 Z77 1994.

Life on the farm & ranch: South Dakota stories, Brookings, S.D.: South Dakota Humanities Council, 2009, S521.5.S8 L53 2009

Looking for history on Highway 14, Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, [2001], 1993, F651.M47 2001

Small-town dreams: stories of Midwestern boys who shaped America, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, [2014], F350.5.M55 2014.

South Dakota: a journey through time, [book and music cassette], Pierre, SD: South Dakota Literacy Council, [1999], 978.3.M5 1998/F651.M48 1998

South Dakota State University: a pictorial history, 1881-2006, Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co., 2005, S537.S6 M54 2005.

The boomer list: Sioux Falls, Rod Evans (Rodney L.) (Photographer), John E Miller 1945-2020, (Author), American Association of Retired Persons. KELO-LAND TV Stations (Firm) Washington Pavilion (Sioux Falls, S.D.), [Sioux Falls, South Dakota]: [AARP in Sioux Falls], [2015], F659.S6 E92 2015.

The plains political tradition: essays on South Dakota political culture, edited by Jon K. Lauck, John E. Miller, and Donald C. Simmons, Jr., Pierre: South Dakota State Historical Society Press, [2011]-, F651.P53 2011.

The WPA guide to South Dakota, South Dakota Federal Writers Project, St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2006, F656.F45 2006.

What makes a South Dakotan? South Dakota stories, John E. Miller, Lenora Hudson, Brookings, SD: South Dakota Humanities Council, 2012, F651.6.W42 2012.

OTHER
Dr. Miller also wrote many book reviews, book chapters, newspaper columns, encyclopedia articles, and conference papers. He also did many radio interviews.

Copyright and Use Statement

In Copyright This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Materials in this collection may be subject to Title 17, Section 108 of the United States Copyright Act. Users are responsible for ensuring compliance with copyright, privacy, trademark, and other applicable rights for their intended use. Obtaining all necessary permissions is the user's responsibility. Written authorization from the copyright and/or other rights holders is required for publication, distribution, or any use of protected materials beyond what is permitted under fair use.