POPLAR BLUFF MAN GIVES HISTORIC MAPS, ATLAS TO SEMO MUSEUM

Lloyd Miler of Poplar Bluff has donated 26 historic color maps from around the world and an 1813 Rand McNally atlas to the Southeast Missouri State University Museum.

Miler donated the Johnson and Browning maps, dating from 1855 to 1858, in memory of his late brother, Harold. Miler said his brother acquired the maps several years ago from the estate of the late Daisy Crump of Milan in northern Missouri.

"I wanted the university to have these maps available for educational purposes and to be taken care of properly," Miler said. "I wanted them to be where people could see them and study them and appreciate them."

Miler is director of emergency management for Poplar Bluff and Butler County. His daughter, Brenda Douglas of Advance, is a Southeast graduate.

Miler said four museums expressed interest in acquiring the maps, but he donated them to Southeast after meeting with a recent Southeast graduate who expressed interest in the maps.

Angela Smith of Williamsville, who is employed by the Army Corps of Engineers at Lake Wappapello, recently read about Miler's map collection. After visiting Miler and viewing the maps, Smith contacted Carol Morrow, Southeast assistant professor of sociology and anthropology. Smith and Morrow had researched the Trail of Tears during Smith's studies at Southeast.

Smith told Morrow she was able to locate the trail on some of the maps. Morrow then contacted Miler, who agreed to donate the collection to the museum.

"We get lots of questions, especially from people doing genealogical research, about what was here 100 to 140 years ago," Morrow said. "These also will really be helpful to students in historic preservation and political science. We do a lot of research in that period, so these will really be useful. I think we are really lucky to get them. And that's our function, to be a regional repository."

Morrow said two sets of color copies of the maps will be made with financial assistance from Southeast's School of University Studies, the historic preservation program and the sociology and anthropology department. One set of copies will be given to Miler and one will be kept on file in the university archives, she said.

The original collection will be placed in acid-free paper and stored in the University Museum, said Pat Reagan-Woodard, museum director.