David E. Miller photograph collection, 1950-1975

David Eugene Miller (1909-1978) was a historian and history professor at the University of Utah. Miller was born on June 5, 1909 in Syracuse, New York, to Arnold Davis and Lillie Barton Miller. David Miller married Della Snell at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah on October 17, 1935. Della died on August 29, 1974. Miller remarried Mabel P. Wallace on December 10, 1974.

Dr. Miller attended Weber State College and received his bachelor’s and masters degrees from Brigham Young University before obtaining his doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1947. He worked as a teacher and principal at Utah public schools between 1929 until 1944. After obtaining his doctorate, he went to work for the University of Utah as a professor of history. Dr. Miller specialized in the history of Utah, of the trans-Mississippi West, of the fur trade and major western trails, and of general American history. He served as director of the Western History Center, president of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, and as historian for the Nauvoo Restoration Inc. He also served as executive secretary of the Organization of American Historians and as director of the Mormon History Association. Miller wrote a number of books and articles on the history of Utah and the American West, including Hole in the Rock: An Epic in the Colonization of the Great American West.. David E. Miller died on August 21, 1978.