The Sketchbooks of William Miller (1796-1882) are a collection of early drawings by J.M.W. Turner’s favourite interpreter of his own works, the Edinburgh artist and engraver William Miller.

William Miller was the scion of an ancient Edinburgh family of Quakers, and spent most of his working life at his Edinburgh home at Hope Park, renamed Millerfield late in his life. Miller’s sketchbooks were part of an extraordinary gift made by his family to a number of leading British libraries during World War II in which Miller’s archives were distributed to institutions which would record and care for them.

The Signet Library holds two Miller sketchbooks, a volume of Miller proof engravings, the Miller family’s original annotated copy of Miller’s biography and a number of personal photographs and drawings, some of which are shown in this part of the exhibition.

A Selection from the Sketchbooks

The sketchbooks date from early in Miller’s career, coinciding with a period of his life c. 1818-1820 spent mostly in London with the engraver George Cooke, although the locations are outwith the city and show Miller both in transit around the south of England and returning to the family home in Edinburgh.

Millerfield – William Miller’s Home at Hope Park, Edinburgh

Part of the gift to the Signet Library was an annotated, extra-illustrated copy of a memoir of Miller, Memorials of Hope Park, published privately in 1886, which contained photographs and drawings of the family and the house. Sciennes Primary School now occupies the site.