William Snow Miller was born on March 29, 1858, in Sterling, Massachusetts. He was the older of two children and only son of William and Harriet Emily (Snow) Miller. He had three younger half-brothers and sisters, the children of his father's second marriage. Both of Miller's parents were natives of Massachusetts; his father was a Congregational minister who held a succession of pastorates in that state and in Connecticut.
Young Miller early became interested in natural phenomena. When, after attending Williston Academy in Easthampton, Massachusetts, family finances did not allow him to go on to college, he began the study of medicine through a preceptorship with Dr. C. H. Hubbard of Essex, Connecticut In 1877, however, a scholarship enabled him to enter the Yale School of Medicine, from which he received the M. D. degree in 1879. Miller received honorary degrees from the University of Cincinnati (1920) and Wisconsin (1926).
Miller's first interests were in research, and for a few years, he worked in pathology with Dr. Francis Delafield at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and in chemistry with the younger Benjamin Silliman at Yale. Illness forced him to turn instead to medical practice, but by 1889, after the beginning of a lifelong affliction of deafness, he had determined to return to research, and in that year, he became pathologist at the City and Memorial hospitals in Worcester, Massachusetts Realizing the lack of detailed knowledge of disease processes, especially in connection with tuberculosis, of which he saw many cases, he decided on further basic study of histology and in 1890 became a fellow at the newly founded Clark University in Worcester, where he worked with the pioneer anatomist Franklin P. Mall. A clear histological report of his attracted the attention of the biologists at the University of Wisconsin and led to an offer to become instructor in vertebrate anatomy, in 1892, which Miller accepted. At Wisconsin Miller taught embryology, histology, neurology, and comparative anatomy to pre-medical students. He quickly distinguished himself by his meticulous lectures and laboratory instruction, his teaching contributing importantly to the high reputation of Wisconsin's pre-medical course. After a year's special training at Leipzig (1895 - 96), he was made an assistant professor of anatomy and, in 1904, associate professor. In 1906-07, in anticipation of the opening of the University of Wisconsin's medical school, he spent a year of advanced study at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, where he came under the influence of the best medical leaders in the country and began a lasting interest in the history of medicine. Promoted to professor in 1916, he continued to teach at the University of Wisconsin until his retirement in 1924. His work, with elaborate reconstruction from serial sections, was exacting and patient in the extreme. It was, of course, of great importance in understanding the pathology of tuberculosis of the lung, and Miller also made particular studies of lymph drainage in an effort to explain the localization of tuberculous lesions. The last fifteen years of his life, as professor emeritus, were especially fruitful. His findings were summarized in his important monograph, The Lung, which appeared in 1937 and went through several editions. While at Wisconsin Miller organized, in 1909, the first regular seminar in the United States on the history of medicine. This met every two weeks, continuing even after his retirement, and included students and staff members selected with care for their contributive ability; through it, many devoted pupils found a lasting enthusiasm for the history and philosophy of medicine. He died of carcinoma in Madison, Wisconsin, and was buried there in Forest Hill Cemetery.
Dr. William Snow Miller is known as an emeritus professor of anatomy, was an authority on the lung, and author of a classic text published in 1937 on the subject entitled Lung. He was also devoted to the study of the history of medicine and formed the Wisconsin Medical History Seminar for Medical School faculty members. Miller was actively pursuing the research on the anatomy of the lung that formed his major contribution to medicine. Miller's extensive library, especially rich in the history of anatomy, later became the center for a chair in the history of medicine at Wisconsin. He was awarded the Trudeau Medal of the National Tuberculosis Association. The few scientific students who could meet the rigorous standards he maintained in the laboratory became prominent in American medicine, especially in connection with tuberculosis and diseases of the chest.
An independent and solitary worker, Miller was an austere man who lived simply, in the tradition of his New England background.
In 1881, Miller married Carrie McKean Bradley. She died in 1901, and in 1912, he married Alice Lisle Burdick, a research worker. He had no children.
