M. A. MILLER'S SKETCHBOOK OF 1860
                    CORINTH: THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
                       OF A MISSISSIPPI BOOMTOWN

CHAPTER IV -  Miller's Corinth Sketchbook - An Interpretation.

     Matthew Amos Miller's sketchbook of 1860 Corinth, Mississippi is
a  sixteen page, brown paper,  cardboard  bound  notebook measuring
approximately 8 1/2 by 11 inches.(Appendix B, Illustrations 3 through
18)    Miller used a lead pencil to make all of his drawings.  There
is no color or shading on any of the  drawings. Miller's used a simple
type of perspective when making most of his drawings known as oblique
cabinet perspective. [1] The lines that Miller uses as the street line
or picture plane were drawn on by him. Occasionally some of Miller's
sketches seem to attempt a two-point perspective but with little
success.[2]  Some of the smaller or less important buildings  such
as houses are drawn in pure  elevation with no attempt  at any
perspective.  This elevation drawings occur primarily  toward  the end
of the sketchbook.   Perhaps  Miller  was getting  tired  of his
project or he was simply  running  out  of time.

     The  exact  dates that Miller worked on his  sketchbook  are
unknown.  The only date given by Miller is simply 1860 and  this only
once on the first inside page of his sketchbook.  There  are several
reasons to support the argument that Miller produced the sketchbook
over a period of several days or even weeks or longer. The  first
reason is simply one of geography.  While  the  first half  of  the
sketchbook is concerned with buildings  inside  the surveyed  section
of the town or "inside the corporation  limits" as  Miller would have
said, the second half is composed of  drawings of buildings and
complexes from the surrounding countryside. Miller gives little or no
clue as to how far most of these structures were from the town limits
and since none of them are  known to  remain  it  is difficult to
estimate  distances.

        Miller's first sketch  outside the surveyed limits of the
town was Corona  College.   Set  on a hill approximately 1\4 to 1\2 of
a  mile  south west of the railroad intersection, this grand three
story  building was visible from town.[3]  After this sketch Miller
gives  only approximate  locations at best such as "railroad in front"
[4] or "south   of college".[5] Miller must then have wandered  back
and forth between town and country as he sketched buildings that were
surely  within the town limits such as a furniture factory  (page 10)
and  the Gothic caliboose or jail (on the same  page).

        Two pages later, however, he shows the "very fine house" of
Mrs. Mary Phillips which is located "outside of the corporation". This
is the only location he gives for this house.[6]  Miller next shows  a
plan  of the Barefoot Farm "4 miles from Corinth, Miss"  on the same
sheet with the Robinson house which was  well  inside  the surveyed
limits of the town and located on Kilpatrick street  one block east of
Madison street.[7] Miller's next two sketches show a working sawmill
obviously located outside town.  The first sketch shows the sawmill
from a distance, probably drawn by Miller as he was approaching it.
The next view shows a much closer view  with the workmen busily sawing
up the logs into lumber.  This geographical sequence argues for a
fairly extended period of activity.

     Another  reason  to support the idea  that  Miller  probably
produced  this  sketchbook over an extended period  of  time  has
already been suggested.  This reason is that the sketches do  not
follow a clear path of progression.(Appendix A, Map 4)  The first page
of sketches show downtown buildings in a  rather  haphazard nature.
His first sketch, reading the sketchbook from  left  to right,  shows
buildings located on Jackson Street  between  Front Row  and  Main
Street.  His next sketch shows a side  view  of  a building located on
the south west corner of Front Row and  Jack- son Street.  The next
group of buildings he shows are located  on the  south  west corner of
Fillmore and Main  Streets.   He  then skips over to the east and
shows a view on Fillmore Street  south of Main Street ignoring an
entire block of buildings along  Front Row.   He then jumps over an
entire block and shows a scene  from Franklin  Street  south of Main
Street before  returning  to  the first  block of Front Row on the
next page and  continuing  along this  street  in a normal west to
east progression.   Miller  may have  been  planning  at the beginning
to show  the  north  south running  streets, such as Fillmore and
Franklin, in a  series  of blocks running east to west but abandoned
this idea as it  proved too confusing and thus returned to a more
linear progression as a better way to show the town.

        The next three pages are very  easy to  follow as Miller
sketches the buildings along Front Row  from west to east, then
returns to the western terminus of Main Street and does the same, and
then picks up at the intersection of Foote and  Jackson  Streets.
These three pages documenting  the three major west east streets of
the commercial center of town are the most  easy  to follow of
Miller's sketches.   Using  these  three pages  one can easily
reconstruct the entire downtown area as  in looked in 1860.  Miller
did not pick and choose the buildings  he sketched  in  this  part of
town  because he  clearly  shows  the location of vacant lots and
street intersections.  He is just  as careful to show what is there as
what is not.   Miller shows  the large  impressive stores as well as
the smaller more  utilitarian sheds and shacks that still lined the
streets and thus marked the transition  from  a crude frontier
settlement  to  a  substantial commercial  center.   Perhaps these
three pages  mark  one  day's work.  For the rest of the sketchbook,
even the remainder of  the downtown  area, Miller seems to wander
aimlessly about  the  town sketching whatever catches his eye.  Miller
seems to be aware  of the disjointed nature of this part of the
sketchbook because  he tells where some of the buildings are located
such as the "corner of Childs and Jackson Streets" or "fronts Taylor-
bet. Childs and Bunch". This  disjointed nature of most of the
sketchbook  as well  as the area covered by Miller do seem to support
the  idea that the sketchbook was produced over an extended period of
time, several days perhaps or even several weeks.

     That  Miller  did  have a distinct purpose  in  making  this
sketchbook  is  obvious  from the fact that he  prepared  a  very
definite  title  page.  This page reads "Corinth,  Miss,  1860  -
Sketches  by M. A. Miller".  This title and date are on the  very
first  page inside the sketchbook.   But just what this  distinct
purpose  was is still unclear.

        The possibility that  Miller  was making  these sketches in
order to produce a bird's eye view  map of Corinth has been suggested.
John W. Reps, in his book,  Views and Viewmakers  of  Urban America,
Lithographers  of  Towns  and Cities in the United States and Canada,
Notes on the Artists  and Publishers and a Union Catalog of Their
Work,  1825-1925,[8]  walks through  the steps that an artist who
produced this type  of  map would  take. Reps states that in order to
produce one  of  these maps,  the  artist needed detailed information
about  the  street pattern,  location of open spaces, appearance of
every  building, topography of the site, and every other observable
element of the community's  physical fabric.  Reps continues that some
of  this material,  such as a map of the  street layout and  drawings
and photographs  of  the major buildings was  readily  available  but
everything else the artist had to get for himself.  It is  doubtful
that Miller had a map of Corinth since no pre-Civil War  maps are
known to exist. While Miller gives very detailed accounts of the
appearance of the major buildings as well as  of many  of  the minor
buildings, and notes the location  of vacant lots along Front Row, he
gives no indication of the topography of the site.  A point that seems
to substantiate the theory that Miller was making a bird's-eye-view
map is that he shows every building in the downtown area either from
the South or the West even if this side was the building's rear.  This
shows that Miller picked a vantage point that governed what he drew of
the buildings no matter which way they faced.

        Reps discusses one of the sketchbooks of Edwin  Whitefield
which were made when Whitefield was preparing  his  bird's eye  view
map of Quincy, Massachusetts in 1877.   Reps  concludes that this book
must be one of several that Whitefield produced in the  course of
preparing his map because it does not include  all of Quincy's
buildings.  Whitefield's sketchbook was  considerably smaller than
Miller's, measuring only four by ten inches.  Whitefield,  like
Miller, worked in pencil.  Whitefield used a  single page for some of
Quicy's more important buildings while at  other times he showed all
of the buildings along one side of a block on a  single
sheet.(Appendix B, Illustrations 19 and 20)   This  is very  similar
to what Miller did.   Whitefield made most  of  his sketches  as  if
he were viewing the buildings from  above  while Miller views his
buildings straight on.  Whitefield made notes in his  sketchbook  to
help guide him when  he  produced  his  map. Miller also made notes
but his were primarily concerned with  the appearance of the
individual buildings.  Reps speculates that all artists  who  produced
these maps must have made  similar  notes. One  element  that
Whitefield includes in  his  sketchbook  that Miller  does not is
rather extensive  topographical  information. They  both  show the
location of  trees,  however.   Whitefield's drawings have a more
finished appearance than do Miller's.[9]  Miller's  sketches are not
all on the same scale either.   The  first three or four pages where
he sketches the downtown area shows the buildings  at  basically the
same scale.  On the bottom  of  page five,  Miller  sketches the
General R.E. Allen house  at  a  much larger  scale than the W.S.
Duncan house.  The fact  that  Miller was not consistent with scale is
proven by his own notation on  a small outbuilding on  the Allen
property which reads "larger than shown here".

     Comparing Miller's and Whitefield's sketchbooks can lead to some
hypothetical conclusions.  Whitefield made a map of Quincy based on
his sketches.  Throughout his career, Whitefield made a total of
fifty-nine maps.[10]  Miller never made a bird's eye  view map  based
on his Corinth sketches as far as is known.   In  fact there is no
evidence that Miller ever produced a map of any kind. While it is easy
to see parallels between Whitefield's and  Miller's  sketchbooks,
these similarities do not prove that  Miller's intention was to
produce a bird's eye view map.

     Another possible reason that Miller produced his  sketchbook is
that he intended to go into the building design and  construction
profession.  In the nineteenth century people went to  lumberyards not
only to buy the actual building materials but  also to get designs for
their houses.   This reason explains  Miller's careful  noting of trim
work as well as his detailed drawings  of the sawmill which probably
produced much of it.  Miller may  have contemplated  opening his own
sawmill either in Corinth or  elsewhere and producing such
architectural millwork with his  Corinth sketches serving as models
for his designs.

     A third possible reason for Miller's sketches is that he was in
town for some  reason, had a lot of time on his hands  and  spent  it
walking around  sketching  the town.  This reason  is  the  most
mundane and probably the most likely of all the possibilities. Until
more evidence is found, however, Miller's reason for making the
sketchbook  will remain a mystery.


Chapter V.  ILLUSTRATED CORINTH


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